The  Teaching 

of    . 

Modern   Foreign  Languages 

in  our 
Secondary    Schools 


BY 

KARL    BREUL 

LITT.D.  (CAMBRIDGE),    PH.D.  (BERLIN) 
CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  LECTURER  IN  GERMAN 


CAMBRIDGE: 

AT    THE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS. 
1898 

[All  Rights  reserved.] 


Cambridge : 

PRINTED   BY  J.   AND   C.   F.    CLAY, 
AT   THE   UNIVERSITY   PRESS. 


PREFACE. 

paper  on  '  the  teaching  of  modern  foreign  languages ' 
-L  was  first  read,  in  the  Lent  Term  of  1895,  to  the  students 
of  the  '  Cambridge  Training  College  for  Women  Teachers '  and 
was  twice  repeated,  with  but  a  few  alterations,  in  subsequent 
years.  It  was  also  read,  by  the  request  of  the  Syndicate,  to 
the  students  attending  the  Cambridge  University  Extension 
Courses  in  August  1896. 

The  lectures  were  originally  intended  to  form  an  Intro- 
duction to  some  criticism  lessons  of  modern  language  lessons 
given  by  the  students  of  the  Training  College,  and  the 
principles  set  forth  in  the  lectures  were  at  once  practically 
applied  in  the  detailed  criticism  of  the  lessons  heard.  The 
lectures  were  intended  to  be  above  all  suggestive  and  stimu- 
lating, but  no  attempt  could  be  made  to  discuss  in  full  the 
views  either  of  the  old  school  of  language  teachers  and 
examiners  who  are  hostile  to  any  reform  or  of  some  modem 
extremists. 

A  few  slight  alterations  were  introduced  and  some  references 
to  recent  literature  on  the  subject  added  when  the  lectures 
were  revised  for  the  Press,  but,  apart  from  these  exceptions, 
they  are  substantially  printed  as  they  were  first  written  in  the 
Christmas  Vacation  of  1894. 

A  paper  '  on  the  training  of  teachers  of  modern  foreign 
languages,'  read  in  April  1894  to  the  College  of  Preceptors 

260611 


vi  Preface. 

(printed  in  the  Educational  Times ,  May  1894,  and  reprinted 
by  Professor  Victor's  special  request  in  Die  Neueren  Sprachen 
ii.  424  sqq.,  585  sqq.),  supplements  in  several  respects  the  views 
set  forth  in  these  lectures  and  may  be  read  in  connection  with 
them. 

The  essay  describing  the  contents  of  a  well-equipped 
'  reference  library  of  a  school  teacher  of  German '  is  a  revised 
and  enlarged  reprint  from  the  Modern  Language  Quarterly  n. 
It  was  thought  that  many  teachers  would  like  to  have  it  as  a 
useful  appendix  to  the  first  paper. 

The  author  is  anxious  to  tender  his  heartiest  thanks  to 
Dr  Henry  Jackson  of  Trinity  College,  Professor  G.  C.  Moore 
Smith,  M.A.,  of  the  Firth  College,  Sheffield,  and  the  Rev. 
W.  A.  Cox,  M.A.,  of  St  John's  College,  who  kindly  read  through 
the  lectures  and  contributed  some  valuable  suggestions. 

The  author  is  convinced  that  many  important  changes  are 
needed  in  our  present  system  of  Modern  Language  teaching 
and  examining ;  he  believes  that  many  teachers  share  this 
conviction  and  are  ready  to  consider  new  problems  in  con- 
nection with  their  teaching  and  to  take  part  in  the  necessary 
re-modelling  of  the  system.  It  is  hoped  that  to  such  teachers 
the  present  pamphlet  will  be  acceptable.  The  outlook  seems 
promising.  Modern  Languages  are  at  last  beginning  to  re- 
ceive in  this  country  the  attention  to  which  the  subject  is 
entitled  not  only  by  its  practical  usefulness  but  still  more  by 
its  intrinsic  value  as  an  important  element  in  a  truly  liberal 
education. 

K.  B. 

ENGLEMERE, 
CAMBRIDGE, 

October,  1898. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I.  THE    TEACHING    OF   MODERN    FOREIGN   LANGUAGES   IN 

OUR  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS r — 62 

a.  General  part .  i — 42 

b.  Special  part :    The  teaching  of  German          .         .         .  43 — 56 

c.  Bibliographical  Appendix        .         .         .         .         .         .  57 — 62 

II.  THE   REFERENCE  LIBRARY  OF  A  SCHOOL  TEACHER  OF 

GERMAN 63—82 

INDEX 83—86 


THE   TEACHING 

OF   MODERN   FOREIGN    LANGUAGES 
IN   OUR   SECONDARY   SCHOOLS. 


THE  subject  which  I  propose  to  discuss  to-night  will 
certainly  not  be  likened  to  a  smooth  and  flower-strewn  path 
leading  down  hill.  If  it  is  not  exactly  a  thorny  path,  it  may 
yet  appear  to  outsiders  to  be  stony,  dull,  and  probably  devoid 
of  those  beautiful  vistas  which  those  who  unweariedly  climb  the 
upward  path  have  a  reasonable  hope  of  beholding  in  the  end. 
Moreover  my  lectures  must  of  necessity  be  somewhat  technical, 
and  the  limited  time  at  my  disposal  strictly  forbids  me  to  enter 
some  of  the  by-paths  from  the  main  road  which  often  afford  no 
small  amount  of  amusement  beside  material  for  very  serious 
reflection.  One  of  these  digressions  would  be  a  short  sketch 
of  the  early  days  of  Modern  Language  teaching,  a  discussion 
of  the  old  quaint  l  babees  bookes '  or  '  bookes  of  Curtesy ' 
which  sometimes  combined  teaching  of  Modern  Languages 
with  teaching  of  good  manners1.  Another  digression  would 
be  ji  discussion  of  the  results  frequently  obtained  by  the 
present  system  of  Modern  Language  teaching  in  our  Secondary 
Schools.  It  has  been  my  lot  for  more  than  twelve  years  to 
make  from  time  to  time  a  careful  study  of  that  very  remarkable 
and  ever  increasing  part  of  educational  literature  which  is 

1  See  my  edition  of  the  fifteenth  century  poem  '  *  The  Boke  of  Curtesy  " 
in  Kolbing's  Englische  Studten,  IX.   (1885),  51  sqq. 

B.  I 


2         The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

known  to  the  scholastic  world  by  the  high-sounding  name  of 
4  examination  papers.'  From  these  papers  and  the  answers  to 
them  one  may  gather  some  ideas  as  to  the  aims  and  results  of 
Modern  Language  teaching — here  I  refer  especially  to  the 
teaching  of  German  and  French — in  our  Secondary  Schools, 
and  if  I  were  to  tabulate  my  experiences,  the  results  would  in 
some  cases  be  very  curious.  In  what  way  do  you  think  must 
a  girl  have  been  taught,  in  what  spirit  must  she  have  read  that 
great  masterpiece  of  Goethe,  his  lofty  play  '  Iphigenie,'  when 
in  answer  to  my  question  'Why  do  we  take  an  interest  in 
the  character  of  Iphigenia  ? '  she  candidly  writes  '  Because 
Iphigenia  is  the  heroine  of  the  play  which  we  had  to  get 
up  for  this  examination'?  But  I  must  abstain  from  telling 
anecdotes  which  are  none  the  less  interesting  for  the  fact  that 
they  are  absolutely  true. 

Again,  I  cannot  but  allude  in  passing  to  the  so-called 
t  reform-movement '  in  the  teaching  of  foreign  tongues,  the 
leading  ideas  of  which  were  set  forth  lucidly  and  forcibly  by 
Professor  Wilhelm  Vietor  (now  of  Marburg)  in  his  famous 
pamphlet :  '  Quousque  tandem  !  Der  Sprachunterricht  muss 
umkehren?  This  revolutionary  little  treatise  was  written  in  this 
country  in  1882.  Since  that  date  very  many  books  and  papers 
have  been  written  pro  and  contra,  most  of  them  advocating  a 
more  or  less  radical  reform  of  the  old  system  of  teaching  in  the 
spirit  of  the  so-called  ' direct,'  ' analytic'  or  'imitative'  method. 
The  '  new  method '  or  '  Neuere  Richtung '  has  of  late  made 
rapid  strides  in  Germany,  and  its  main  principles  are  being 
gradually,  and  deservedly,  adopted  by  a  small  band  of  energetic 
Modern  Language  teachers  in  this  country.  I  cannot  under- 
take to  discuss  here  even  the  best  books  and  pamphlets  on 
new  methods  of  Modern  Language  teaching.  They  will  be 
enumerated  at  the  end  of  these  lectures,  and  students  and 
teachers  should  make  it  a  point  to  read  the  principal  ones. 

These  lectures  are  especially  intended  to  be  suggestive, 
and,  in  my  own  small  way,  I  hope  to  fire  your  enthusiasm. 


in  our  Secondary  Schools. 


Instead  of  discussing  many  different  modern  methods1  I  shall 
venture  to  lay  before  you  my  own  opinions  and  experiences 
together  with  my  reasons  for  holding  the  former.  I  propose  to 
throw  out  some  hints  on  all  the  more  important  points  of 
Modern  Language  teaching  in  schools,  and  shall  take  my 
instances  mainly,  but  not  exclusively,  from  German. 

I  suppose  I  may  take  it  for  granted  that  you  are  all  more 
or  less  well  acquainted  with  the  general  methods  of  teaching, 
and  have  some  notions  as  to  what  can  be  reasonably  expected  - 
from  school  children.  I  can  therefore  restrict  my  observations 
to  the  more  technical  part  of  the  Modern  Language  teaching 
in  Secondary  Schools  and  the  various  questions  intimately 
connected  with  it. 

Some  years  ago  there  was  a  great  deal  of  controversy  as  to 
the  educational  value  of  Modern  Languages2 — fortunately  that 
time  is  now  definitely  passed.  People  are  becoming  more  and 
more  anxious  that  Modern  Languages  should  be  taught,  and 
should  be  taught  efficiently  and  with  much  better  results  than 
heretofore.  I  firmly  believe  that  there  is  a  great  chance  for 
Modern  Language  teachers  in  the  immediate  future,  that  great 
opportunities  will  before  long  be  given,  and  that  all  we  have  to 
do  at  schools  and  universities  is  to  prepare  ourselves  most 
carefully  so  as  to  be  ready  when  the  time  comes.  It  should 
not  be  said  of  us  '  Aber  der  grosse  Moment  findet  ein  kleines 
Geschlecht.' 

The  question  arises :  How  should  the  necessary  improve- 
ment in  the  teaching  of  modern  foreign  languages  be  effected  ? 
I  think  it  can  be  brought  about  if  the  following  four  conditions 
be  fulfilled: 

(i)     More  time  should  be  allotted  to  the  study  of  Modern 

1  See  now  Miss  Mary  Brebner's  pamphlet  '  The  Method  of  Teaching 
Modern  Languages  in  Germany'  (London,   1898),   Chapter  v. 

2  See,  among  others,  C.  Colbeck, '  On  the  teaching  of  Modern  Languages 
in  Theory  and  Practice,'  Lecture  I.  Cambridge,  1887,  and  Fr-  Storr,  'The 
teaching  of  Modern  Languages'  (1897),  p.  274. 

I 2 


4         The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

Languages  at  School.     This  is  of  paramount  importance.    Our 
leading  public  schools  should  set  the  example. 

(2)  This  time  should  be  used  much  more  systematically, 
with  special  reference  to  the  educational  needs  of  the  pupils, 
and  not  merely  with  regard  to  the  requirements  of  certain 
examinations.  A  great  deal  of  harm  is  done  to  Modern 
Language  teaching  throughout  the  country  by  the  conflicting 
regulations  of  our  host  of  examinations — even  though  many  of 
them  have  done  a  great  deal  of  good  in  their  time  and  may 
still  have  much  to  recommend  them — and  by  the  fact  that 
nearly  all  of  them  are  conducted  exclusively  by  means  of 
printed  papers  and  without  any  oral  test.  This  seems  to  me 
a  fatal  mistake.  The  modern  tongues  should  not  be  treated 
like  the  classical  dead  languages,  a  viva  voce  test  should  as 
far  as  possible  be  insisted  on,  in  spite  of  the  many  practical 
difficulties  in  conducting  the  examinations  of  which  I  am  of 
course  well  aware. 

(3)  From  the  very  beginning  none  but  duly  qualified 
teachers  should  be  entrusted  with  the  teaching  of  Modern 
Languages.  As  to  the  qualifications  which  I  believe  to  be 
absolutely  indispensable  I  shall  in  the  course  of  these  lectures 
briefly  give  you  my  views.  For  details  I  should  like  to  refer 
you  to  my  lecture  given  in  1894  before  the  College  of 
Preceptors  "  On  the  training  of  teachers  of  Modern  foreign 
Languages"  (Educational  Times,  May,  1894).  I  have  since 
been  told  that  the  qualifications  desired  in  that  paper  were  too 
high  for  human  capacity  to  attain,  that  they  represented  the 
ideal  rather  than  the  feasible.  My  answer  is  that  I  know  from 
experience  that  in  many  cases  the  ideal  has  been  reached,  that 
I  believe  that  in  another  twenty- five  years  it  will  be  realised 
much  more  completely,  that  the  training  of  a  Modern  Language 
teacher  does  not  end  with  his  having  taken  his  University 
degree1,  and  finally  that  it  is  a  mistake  to  put  one's  ideal  too 
low.  He  who  forms  an  educational  or  any  other  ideal  must 
1  See  Educ.  Times,  I.e.  p.  230. 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  5 

pitch  it  high ;  time  will  shew  if  he  was  right  or  if  his  demands 
were  excessive.  I  confidently  leave  you  to  judge  for  yourselves. 
(4)  There  should  be  a  more  general  agreement  as  to  the 
chief  points  of  method  to  be  adopted  and  the  books  to  be  read 
in  school.  To  this  fourth  point  I  wish  to  devote  special 
attention  in  these  lectures.  It  is  the  one  which  at  this  very 
moment  is  engrossing  the  attention  of  Modern  Language 
teachers  in  this  country1  and  abroad. 

Methods. 

There  are  many  different  methods  of  teaching  Modern 
Languages  in  the  field — all  claim  to  be  the  one  true  method, — 
all  have  zealous  adherents,  and  I  need  hardly  tell  you  that  all 
promise  wonderful  results — most  of  them  in  a  remarkably  short 
time  too.  Still  it  seems  to  me,  and  my  experience  as  a  teacher 
and  examiner  confirms  my  impression — that  '  the  true  method,' 
*  the  royal  road,'  has  not  as  yet  been  discovered. 

It  has  not  been  discovered  either  in  England  or  abroad. 

I  certainly  do  not  flatter  myself  that  I  have  discovered  it. 
We  are  clearly  just  now  in  a  time  of  transition  and  experiment, 
and  I  think  we  are  in  a  fair  way  towards  agreeing  on  a  number 
of  essential  points.  Many  practical  and  experienced  teachers 
in  this  country  as  well  as  abroad  are  at  present  actively 
working  in  this  field ;  much  that  is  good  has  of  late  been  said 
and  written  on  the  subject, — and  much,  as  it  seems  to  me,  that 
is  quite  worthless,  unscientific  and  impracticable;  a  universal 
agreement  on  all  the  principal  points  of  method  has,  however, 
at  present  not  yet  been  arrived  at.  Much  more  interchange 
of  ideas  and  experience  is  required.  The  chief  work  is 
being  done  in  Germany,  Austria,  Scandinavia,  France  and 
America — England,  in  spite  of  a  few  noteworthy  exceptions, 
has  unfortunately  so  far  lagged  behind. 

1  See  the  discussions  in  the  Jotirnal  of  Edtication  and  in  the  Modern 
Language  Quarterly.  Cp.  the  Bibliographical  Appendix,  pp.  57-58. 


6         The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

Before  going  into  details  I  should  like  to  caution  intending 
teachers  on  one  or  two  points  : 

(1)  Do  not  be  too  confident  with  regard  to  certain  'new' 
methods,   especially  do  not  believe  too  easily  in  certain  in- 
fallible ones  which  promise  to  teach  many  wonderful  things  in 
a  very  short  time.     They  are  mostly  very  one-sided,  no  doubt 
very  good  with  regard  to  one  certain  point,  but,  to  the  neglect 
of  all    else,   they  carry  one   really  good    idea  much  too  far. 
They  are   as   a   rule  more  or  less  mechanical,   of  but  little 
scientific,  literary  or  educational  value ;  they  afford  a  certain 
routine  but  do  not  at  all  form  and  educate  the  minds  of  the 
pupils.     They  merely  aim  at  drilling  the  pupil  in  the  use  of  a 
number   of  commonplace   phrases   and  small    everyday  chit- 
chat.    But   the  acquisition   of  the  practical,   though  limited, 
command  of  a  modern  tongue  by  means  of  some  series  of 
words  and  phrases,  the  knowledge  possessed  by  head-waiters, 
couriers  and  interpreters,  although  it  is  no  doubt  sometimes 
useful,  cannot  be  the  aim  of  Modern  Language  teaching  in  our 
higher  schools.     A  language  which  has  so  subtle  and  elaborate 
a  syntax  as  French,  or  a  language  which  'is  so  deeply  saturated 
with  poetry  as  German,  cannot  and  ought  not  to  be  studied  by 
older  boys  and  girls  by  mere  imitation,  after  the  unconscious 
fashion  of  an  infant ! 

(2)  Again,  method  itself,  even  the  best  method,  however 
important  it  is,  is  not  everything.     A  very  great  deal  of  the 
success  depends  on  the  natural  gifts,  the   previous  training, 
the  energy  and  the  experience  of  the  individual  teacher.     It 
is  well  known  that  the  best  Modern  Language  scholar  does  not 
always  obtain  the  best  results  as  a  teacher.     Consequently  the 
Modern  Language  teacher  must  not  only  be  a  well-trained 
scholar,  but  in  addition  something  of  an  artist  and  of  a  man  of 
the   world.     He   must   have   the   power   of  speech,    an  easy 
mastery  of  the  foreign  idiom,  and  the  gift  of  drawing  out  his 
pupils  and  of  making  them  speak,  one  and  all,  the  shy  ones 
no  less  than  the  others,  at  every  lesson.     He  must  have, — 


in  our  Secondary  Schools. 


more  I  think  than  any  other  master, — the  great  gift  of  readily 
imparting  his  knowledge,  of  really  interesting  his  pupils  in 
using  the  foreign  idiom  and  in  studying  foreign  life  and 
thought,  and  of  enabling  them  not  only  to  speak  but  to  think 
in  the  foreign  language.  I  fully  agree  with  Dr  Miinch  who  at 
the  general  meeting  of  German  Modern  Language  teachers 
held  at  Hamburg  in  1896  insisted  that  "a  teacher  should  have 
a  certain  amount  of  natural  eloquence,  quickness  of  perception, 
and  appreciation  of  foreign  character,  as  well  as  an  interest  in 
all  that  concerns  modern  life. " 

Whatever  the  method  adopted  may  be,  each  master  will 
modify  it  in  accordance  with  his  own  individuality  and  the 
requirements  of  different  sets  of  pupils.  He  will  continually 
modify  and  improve  his  ways  of  teaching  in  the  light  of  his 
extending  study  and  increasing  experience. 

Nevertheless,  although  the  possession  of  a  certain,  even  a 
very  good,  method  is  not  all  that  is  wanted  by  a  young  zealous 
teacher  in  order  to  be  successful,  it  would  yet  not  be  right 
to  undervalue  its  importance.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  most 
important  for  us  to  make  up  our  minds  as  to  what  seem  to  be 
the  most  satisfactory  principles  to  be  generally  adopted  in 
Modern  Language  teaching. 

Happily  on  a  few  important  points  there  seems  to  exist 
even  now  an  almost  general  agreement  among  experts.  Let 
me  take  these  first.  They  are : 

(1)  It  is  necessary  that  Modern  Language  teachers  should 
have  a  much  longer  and  better  training1  than  they  have  had 
up  to  now  in  the  great  majority  of  cases.     Their  preparation 
should  be  at  once  more  scientific  and  more  practical.     The 
improvement  of  the  masters  must  needs  precede  the  improve- 
ment of  the  children  entrusted  to  their  care.     The  element  of 
dilettantism  is  henceforth  to  be  strictly  excluded. 

(2)  Modern  Languages  should  not  be  taught  in  the  same 

1  On  the  method  of  training  of  Modern  Language  teachers  see  my 
before-mentioned  lecture. 


8         The  TeacJiing  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

style  as  the  ancient  tongues.  They  are  not  studied  mainly  for 
the  sake  of  their  form,  not  even  exclusively  for  the  beauty  and 
value  of  their  literature,  but  in  teaching  Modern  Languages  we 
aim  at  teaching  the  principal  features  of  the  life^  character  and 
thought  of  great  foreign  nations.  You  will,  then,  agree  with 
me  that  Modern  Languages  should  not  only  or  mainly  be 
studied  and  taught  by  means  of  translation-exercises,  by  getting 
up  many  paragraphs  of  grammar,  remembering  rare  exceptions 
and  turning  over  the  pages  of  dictionaries.  There  should  be 
no  lessons  more  interesting  and  delightful  to  children  than  a 
Modern  Language  lesson  given  by  the  right  teacher. 

(3)  And  again,  Modern  Languages  should  be  much  more 
closely  connected  with  the  study  of  English  on  the  one  hand 
and  with  History  and  Geography  on  the  other.  If  groups  of 
languages  are  studied  together,  those  naturally  related  to  each 
other  should  be  taken  by  preference.  French  should  be  con- 
nected with  Latin,  and  German  with  English.  From  a  purely 
theoretical  point  of  view  it  is  even  desirable  that  the  two 
foreign  tongues  should  not  be  taught  by  the  same  person,  as 
not  many  a  man  will  possess  the  power  of  transforming  himself 
now  into  a  Frenchman  and  now  into  a  German  with  equal  ease 
and  success.  There  are,  on  the  other  hand,  many  advantages 
in  entrusting  the  teaching  of  English  and  of  Modern  History 
and  Geography,  which  are  often  sadly  neglected  at  school,  to 
the  Modern  Language  master. 

I  have  maintained  that  Modern  Languages  should  not  be 
taught  in  the  old  fashion  like  the  ancient  classical  languages. 
A  much  greater  stress  must  be  laid  on  the  language  as  a  living 
and  spoken  organism.  Hence  it  follows  that 

(a)  Pronunciation  should  be  most  carefully  taught  by 
trained  teachers  and  from  the  very  first  lesson.  The  pronun- 
ciation of  the  children  should  be  correct  from  the  beginning 
and  should  become  easy  through  much  practice.  This  aim 
cannot  be  reached  by  mere  unconscious  imitation,  but  in  the 
case  of  some  especially  difficult  sounds  a  certain  amount  of 


in  our  Secondary  Schools. 


phonetic  drill  is  absolutely  necessary  in  order  to  shorten  and 
to  smooth  the  way  of  the  pupil.  No  one  should  undertake  to 
teach  Modern  Languages  even  to  beginners  who  has  not 
previously  had  some  training  in  phonetics. 

(b)  Ordinary  phrases  and  characteristic  idioms  should  be 
taught  from  the  very  beginning.     The  children  should  learn  to 
choose  them  correctly  and  to  use  them  readily.     And  lastly, 

(c)  Their  vocabulary  should  be  as  large  and  as  useful  as 
possible. 

Under  the  old  system  of  studying  Modern  Languages  cases 
like  the  following  often  occurred :  a  great  scholar  would  read 
French  easily  but  would  scarcely  understand  a  word  of  the 
spoken  idiom  if  a  French  colleague  happened  to  address  him 
in  French.  Another  scholar  would  write  German  fluently  and 
without  a  single  grammatical  mistake,  but  it  would  be  mere 
book-German,  a  dictionary  language,  a  'papierner  Stir  as  it 
has  been  called  by  O.  Schroder,  a  language  in  which  there 
would  be  scarcely  one  single  sentence  such  as  a  German  would 
write.  A  letter  on  ordinary  topics  written  by  this  scholar 
would  so  much  smack  of  translation  and  be  so  utterly  academic 
and  unreal  that  it  would  require  re-writing  from  beginning 
to  end  in  order  to  become  living  German.  On  hearing  a 
noise  outside  he  would  perhaps  say :  '  Welches  ist  doch  jenes 
Gerausch,  welches  ich  eben  jetzt  dort  ausserhalb  vernehme?' 
while  a  German  would  say  :  '  Was  ist  denn  da  draussen  fiir  ein 
Gerausch?'  or  possibly  in  familiar  language:  'Was  ist  denn 
draussen  los?'  Only  the  other  day  I  heard  a  gentleman  who 
professed  to  know  Modern  Languages  well  say  home  for 
homme,  vou  for  vu,  and  Enfenk  for  Anfang,  swonsig  for 
zwanzig,  Studten  for  Studien,  etc. 

It  is  not  easy  to  say  to  what  extent  oral  and  colloquial 
German  should  be  combined  in  school  teaching  with  the  study 
and  analysis  of  the  written  literary  language.  In  order  to 
arrive  at  a  fairly  satisfactory  conclusion  and  to  strike  a  fair 
balance  between  the  views  of  the  old  school  who  almost 


io       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

exclusively  studied  the  written  language  of  a  few  select  classics, 
mostly  poets,  and  the  modern  extremists  who  condemn  what- 
ever is  not  colloquial  and,  in  their  dread  of  elegant  diction, 
often  recommend  and  teach  in  school  a  familiar  language 
bordering  on  slang,  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  before  going  any 
further  to  settle  for  ourselves  the  question  :  What  should  be  the 
aim  of  Modern  Language  teaching  in  our  Secondary  Schools  ? 

Here  we  cannot  ask  merely :  What  is  desirable  on  general 
theoretical  grounds?  we  are  obliged  to  ask :  What  can  be  done 
in  a  limited  number  of  lessons  with  children  ?  Hence  it  seems 
to  me  that  'a  practical  mastery'  of  a  foreign  language  as 
promised  by  some  methods  cannot  possibly  be  hoped  for. 
How  many  adults  can  confidently  assert  that  they  are  absolute 
masters  of  their  own  language  ?  But  a  good  deal  may  be  done 
at  school,  and  whatever  is  learned  should  be  learned  well  and 
intelligently  so  as  to  become  a  good  basis  for  later  practice. 

What  is  to  be  of  paramount  importance  to  most  learners  in 
after-life?     Here  I  deliberately  look  for  a  moment  at  thi 
from  the  utilitarian  point  of  view  and  maintain  the  follo^ 
propositions  : 

Not  one  of  them  will  have  to  translate  English  works  into 
foreign  languages  (we  are  of  course  not  concerned  with  the 
training  of  interpreters  and  professional  translators). 

Few  will  ever  be  called  upon  to  speak  very  fluently  in  a 
foreign  tongue. 

Some  may  wish  to  translate  from  the  foreign  idiom  into 
English. 

Others  may  wish  to  correspond  in  the  foreign  tongue,  but 

All  want  to  read  foreign  books,  periodicals  and  newspapers, 
and  to  enjoy  the  treasures  of  foreign  literature.  All  will  one 
day  be  anxious  to  know  something  of  and  to  appreciate 
justly  the  general  character,  thoughts  and  manners  of  their 
neighbours  and  fellow-workers  in  the  great  field  of  European 
civilisation.  For  this  most  important  aim  the  school  teaching 
should  fully  equip  them.  Hence  it  follows  that  reading,  and 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  1 1 


not  translating,  should  be  placed  in  the  foreground.  *  Sprach- 
gefiihl '  should  be  early  aroused  and  carefully  fostered  by  much 
reading  of  first-rate  modern  authors.  A  sufficient  amount  of 
grammar  should  be  learned  chiefly  from  the  reading  and  a  sub- 
sequent systematic  analysis  of  the  most  important  sentences1. 
But  in  school  (the  University  system  is  of  course  different) 
grammar  should  not  be  taught  for  its  own  sake,  but  rather  as  a  j 
subsidiary  subject,  to  promote  the  full  and  proper  understanding, 
and  to  facilitate  the  reproduction  or  imitation,  of  the  author's 
words  and  phrases.  Translation  from  the  foreign  language  into 
good  and  idiomatic  English  (not  the  usual  shocking  trans- 
lation-English) should  be  carefully  and  systematically  practised, 
and  at  an  early  stage  some  very  easy  original  composition  | 
in  the  foreign  language  might  be  attempted  with  advantage. 
But  very  little  ordinary  composition,  i.e.  translation  from 
English  into  the  foreign  language,  should  be  done,  and  only 
with  the  most  advanced  pupils.  This  is  I  believe  the  greatest 
mistake  made  in  our  schools.  The  worship  of  early  composition 
in  French  and  German  is  as  unjustifiable  as  it  is  detrimental 
to  the  best  training  in  lower  forms.  In  almost  all  schools 
composition  is  begun  much  too  early,  when  the  children  know 
but  little  grammar,  hardly  any  idiomatic  turns  and  phrases, 
and  have  not  yet  developed  any  'Sprachgefiihl.'  Most  ex- 
aminations prescribe  it  at  a  stage  when  the  children  cannot 
possibly  be  expected  to  produce  a  piece  of  decent  composition 
of  ordinary  difficulty.  The  regulation  requiring  early  compo- 
sition and  the  pieces  set  may  look  very  nice  on  the  programme 
and  in  the  papers  of  certain  examinations — but  look  at  the 
Examiners'  Reports  in  order  to  estimateHhe  value  of  the  work 
sent  up  by  the  vast  majority  of  the  candidates.  Rather  set 

1  As  to  the  way  in  which  this  may  be  dpne  eVen  with  the  merest 
beginners  see  F.  Spencer's  '  Aims  and  Practice  of  Teaching '  (Cambridge, 
1897),  pp.  100  sqq.  Cp.  also  J.  Findlay's  'Preparation  for  Instruction  in 
English  on  a  direct  method '  (Marburg,  1893)  and  the  essays  enumerated 
under  7  and  12  in  the  Bibliographical  Appendix  (page  59). 


12       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

them  some  easy  original  composition.  Original  compositions 
are  in  fact  easier  than  translations  from  the  mother-tongue  and 
certainly  at  first  better  calculated  to  make  the  children  enter 
into  the  spirit  of  the  foreign  language.  The  writing  of  easy 
letters  on  familiar  subjects  which  would  interest  the  children 
should  be  encouraged  early  and  practised  constantly.  Little 
stories  read  or  told  by  the  teacher  should  be  reproduced  by 
the  pupils,  short  accounts  of  ordinary  things  and  occurrences 
should  be  frequently  given.  The  children  should  be  en- 
couraged to  write  and  to  speak  about  all  they  have  actually 
seen  and  experienced.  During  a  Modern  Language  lesson  no 
English  appellation  should  as  far  as  possible  stand  between  the 
objects  and  their  foreign  name.  In  higher  forms  paraphrases 
of  easy  poems  should  be  attempted,  and  at  the  end  of  their 
school  time  the  most  advanced  pupils  might  write  about  the 
principal  characters  in  a  play  which  they  have  read  or  on 
similar  subjects.  Some  of  the  best  pupils  might  also  be 
induced  to  take  part — under  due  supervision — in  the  lately 
instituted  International  Correspondence  between  pupils  attend- 
ing German,  French  and  English  schools.  This  movement  is 
a  very  recent,  one  but  much  good  is  reported  of  it1. 

After  having  now  settled  the  various  preliminary  questions 
concerning  the  requirements  and  aims  of  Modern  Language 
teaching  I  shall  proceed  to  the  more  detailed  discussion  of  the 
teaching  of  pronunciation,  spelling,  grammar,  and  similar  points 
of  language,  while  in  a  subsequent  lecture  I  shall  discuss  the 
reading,  the  composition  and  study  of  reading-books,  and  the 
proper  selection  and  explanation  of  authors,  and  the  teaching  of 
the  history  of  foreign  literature.  In  a  final  lecture  I  shall  speak 
of  some  special  points  referring  to  the  teaching  of  German  only. 

1  Apply  to  Dr  M.  Hartmann,  Konigliches  Gymnasium,  Leipzig,  and 
also  to  Monsieur  Sevrette,  31  Rue  St  Brie,  Chartres  (Eure  et  Loire). 
Compare  Miss  M.  Brebner,  '  The  Method  of  Teaching  Modern  Languages 
in  Germany,'  pp.  38 — 39,  and  the  Journal  of  Education,  1897,  p.  99. 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  13 


Pron  undation. 

Any  child  that  is  instructed  in  a  foreign  language  has  a  right 
to  hear  and  to  learn  from  its  teacher  a  correct  and  idiomatic 
pronunciation  of  the  foreign  tongue.  Am  I  wrong  if  I  main- 
tain that  in  many  schools,  even  in  good  ones,  this  condition  is 
far  from  being  fulfilled  ?  I  do  not  at  all  require  a  teacher  to 
dwell  too  long  on  phonetic  niceties  or  to  give  a  great  deal  of 
precious  time  to  the  teaching  of  phonetics  pure  and  simple. 
There  is  neither  time  nor  need  for  that.  He  should  at  first 
speak  and  read  to  his  pupils  a  good  deal  himself,  in  order  to 
train  their  ear  and  to  accustom  them  to  the  characteristic 
sounds  and  intonation  of  the  foreign  idiom.  After  they  have 
been  bathed,  as  it  were,  in  the  foreign  element  and  have  become 
somewhat  familiar  with  the  foreign  way  of  articulating  sounds, 
words  and  phrases,  he  will  make  them  repeat  his  sentences 
over  and  over  again,  carefully  and  mercilessly  correcting  any 
mistake  of  any  importance.  He  will  sometimes  make  the 
whole  class  pronounce  some  sentences  together  in  order  to 
force  shy  and  backward  pupils  to  speak  out  and  to  form  their 
sounds  after  the  model  of  the  others.  He  will  thus  more 
readily  detect  the  faulty  pronunciation  of  an  individual  child. 
The  chief  difficulties  will  be  noted  down  and  tabulated. 
Victor's  Lauttafeln  (for  German,  French,  and  English)  should 
be  used  throughout  in  connection  with  this  work.  They  should 
be  hung  up  in  the  class  room  during  the  lesson.  They  will  be 
continually  worked  at  and  the  difficulties  will  gradually  become 
less  and  will  finally  be  overcome  by  the  large  majority  of  children J. 
Such  difficulties  are  for  instance  the  French  nasal  sounds,  the 
1  mouille^  the  guttural  r  in  French  and  German,  the  pure  (un- 
diphthongised)  long  vowels  and  the  modified  vowels  in  German, 

1  On  the  whole  question  see  now  the  able  lecture  "  On  the  use  of  Phonetics 
in  Modern  Language  Teaching"  by  Dr  Paul  Passy,  an  abstract  of  which  is 
printed  in  The  Modern  Quarterly  of  Language  and  Literature ',  I.  pp.  64  sqq. 
and  cp.  The  Journal  of  Education  1897.  (See  the  Index  under  "  Phonetics." ) 


14       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

the  German  initial  z,  medial  and  final  ch,  etc.  The  instruction 
in  actual  phonetics  should  be  as  short  and  as  simple  as  possible, 
but  its  fundamental  principles  should  be  imparted  even  to 
children.  They  should  be  told  and  shewn  that—  the  spoken 
words  consist  of  sounds  and  not  of  letters  (e.g.  veau,  deuil, 
feuille-,  schwarz,  stehen,  sprechen,  etc.).  There  is  no  very  great 
difference  in  the  pronunciation  of  the  German  Vieh,  the  English 
fee  and  the  French  ft,  although  the  vowel  sound  is  perhaps 
longest  in  the  English  word  (=feeee,  phonetically^2).  Again  a 
teacher  would  probably  seize  an  opportunity  of  shewing  the 
children  that  our  ordinary  alphabet  is  not  by  any  means 
complete,  as  it  is  far  from  representing  each  sound  occurring  in 
a  language  by  a  special  symbol,  but  uses  the  same  letter  for 
various  sounds,  e.g.  ch  in  ich,  ach,  or  b  in  Weib,  Weibes  •  or  a  in 
man,  father,  small,  or  oo  in  good,  floor,  flood;  or  th  in  thin  and 
thine  ;  g  in  gin  and  gun  \  I  in  fusil,  peril  and  fils  ('  sons  '  and 
1  threads');  //  in  famille,  Camille\  or  g  in  gant,  mangeant. 
Again  —  and  here  lies  a  great  source  of  danger  with  regard  to 
pronunciation  —  the  same  letter  may  represent  different  sounds 
in  different  languages,  and  in  pronouncing  foreign  words  the 
child  should  be  early  accustomed  to  give  to  the  letters  their 
foreign  and  not  their  usual  English  pronunciation,  e.g.  Mann 
and  man,  Ball  and  ball.  In  the  case  of  the  German  words  the 
mouth  is  much  more  opened  and  the  vowel  sound  quite  short 
and  pure.  The  German  Quell  '  source  '  is  to  be  pronounced 
Kvel  (bilabial  but  without  protruding  the  lips  at  all),  the 
English  quell  is  kuelL  Or  again,  in  many  German  words 
the  so-called  '  glottal  stop  '  should  be  carefully  noticed  and 
practised,  e.g.  Verein  (=feryain),  erortern  (=rfortern},  geachtet 


(=gjdctet\  abdndern  (=dp'end^rn),  Polareis  (^  Polar'  ais),  Wach- 
telei  (vdct^at),  etc.1  The  '  glottal  stop'  is  formed  by  bringing 
the  vocal  chords  together,  so  as  for  a  moment  to  close  the 
glottis,  and  then  suddenly  opening  them  with  an  explosion, 

1  For  the  explanation  of  the  symbols  used  in  the  transcription  of  the 
German  words  see  Victor's  'German  Pronunciation,'  Leipzig,  1890. 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  1 5 

as  is  done  in  coughing,  or  in  clearing  the  throat.  It  is  not  a 
sound  difficult  to  produce,  but,  as  it  is  not  ordinarily  written,  it 
is  often  neglected  by  English  teachers  of  German.  Students 
who  wish  to  speak  German  at  all  well  must  be  careful  not  to 
neglect  the  glottal  stop  and  to  make  a  clear  distinction  in  the 
pronunciation  of  words  such  as  vereisen  (=for'ais9n)  and 
verreisen  (foraiszri).  It  has  been  well  discussed  by  the  late 
Miss  Laura  Soames  in  her  excellent  '  Introduction  to  Pho- 
netics' (London,  1891),  p.  146,  and  by  Professor  W.  Victor  in 
his  most  useful  '  German  Pronunciation,'  pp.  56  sqq. 

A  word  exists  as  a  rule  only  as  part  of  a  phrase,  hence  the ' 
proper  reading  of  whole  sentences  should  be  started  at  once. 
Here  the  characteristic  foreign  intonation  and  the  peculiar 
accent  of  the  phrase  should  be  carefully  taught  from  the 
beginning.  The  teacher  should  insist  on  his  pupils  reading 
and  reciting  the  French  sentences  in  the  even,  rhythmical  and 
distinct  manner  which  is  so  characteristic  of  the  French 
enunciation.  He  should  not  allow  them  to  jerk  out  the  words 
one  by  one,  but  he  should  strictly  insist  on  their  emitting 
them  in  one  continuous  flow  to  the  end  of  the  sentence,  how- 
ever slow  the  pronunciation  of  the  whole  sentence  may  be 
at  first.  This  is  often  neglected  in  school  teaching,  the  masters 
being  satisfied  with  a  correct  pronunciation  of  individual  words. 
Keating  should  be  regularly  and  carefully  practised  from  the 
Deginning,  and  also  dictation,  in  order  to  train  the  ear  to  catch 
foreign  sounds  quTckTy~and  'correctly. 

In  order  to  teach  pronunciation  effectively,  most  advocates 
of  the  '  Neuere  Richtung '  strongly  recommend  beginning  with 
a  phonetic  transcription  of  foreign  texts  and  not  letting  the 
children  see  the  ordinary  spelling  at  all  during  the  first  few 
weeks  (or  months).  They  maintain  that  children  will  catch  the 
foreign  accent  ever  so  much  better  if  they  do  not  start  with  the 
confusing  spelling  of  the  present  day,  and  they  are  of  opinion 
that  the  transition  to  the  ordinary  spelling  later  on  is  not 
nearly  so  difficult  as  one  would  believe.  They  say  that  the 


1 6       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 


experiment  has  been  tried  more  than  once  with  excellent 
success,  while  those  who  most  strenuously  oppose  it  have  never 
given  it  a  fair  trial.  This  vexed  question  (of  which  I  have  no 
practical  experience)  is  still  much  discussed  and  far  from  being 
settled1.  Practical  experiments  by  competent,  well- trained 
teachers  are  still  much  wanted.  As  far  as  I  can  see  at  present 
and  have  been  able  to  gather  from  the  experience  of  others,  it 
is  not  necessary  to  introduce  transcribed  texts — excellent  and 
indispensable  as  no  doubt  they  are  for  students  and  teachers — 
into  class  teaching.  The  modern  reformers  seem  to  go,  in  this 
case,  a  little  too  far  in  their  natural  reaction  against  the  old 
method.  They  want  revolution  instead  of  reform.  At  all 
events  books  like  Dr  Sweet's  *  Elementarbuch  des  gespro- 
chenen  Englisch '  and  '  A  Primer  of  Phonetics '  will  never  do 
for  school  teaching.  Dr  Passy's  system  as  used  in  his  periodical 
*Le  maitre  phonetique'  is  much  easier,  it  has  recently  been 
adopted  by  Professor  Victor  and  bids  fair  to  become  the  recog- 
nised International  alphabet  for  phonetic  transcriptions.  Single 
words  of  exceptional  difficulty  might  well  be  transcribed  in 
class  teaching  in  the  symbols  of  this  comparatively  simple 
alphabet.  The  books  on  phonetics  from  which  a  teacher  will 
derive  useful  information  are  enumerated  in  my  '  Handy  Guide,' 
§  4,  b.  To  these  should  now  be  added  Victor's  *  Kleine  Phonetik 
des  Deutschen,  Englischen  und  Franzosischen,'  Leipzig,  1897. 
After  the  ordinary  pronunciation  has  been  thoroughly  mas- 
tered by  the  children,  the  teacher  should  discuss  with  them,  as 
occasion  arises,  noteworthy  exceptions  occurring  chiefly  in  the 
rimes  of  the  classical  poets.  The  apparent  irregularities  of 
French  rimes  such  as  roi :  parlerais :  Francois  should  be 
explained  by  an  account  of  the  earlier  pronunciation  of  -oi 
(like  oe).  The  German  rimes  of  Schiller  and  Goethe,  e.g. 
glilhn  :  ziehn  \  Euch  :  bleich  ;  krone :  Thrdne  ;  an  :  Bahn  and 
others  cease  to  be  impure  in  the  South  German  dialectic 

1  See  The  Mod.  Quarterly  of  Language  and  Literature,  n.  150 — 3  and 
157—8;   The  Journal  of  Education,  1897  (in  various  places). 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  17 

pronunciation  of  these  great  poets.  In  the  highest  forms  an 
occasional  word  about  the  changes  of  pronunciation  and  the 
standard  of  pronunciation  would  not  be  out  of  place. 

Spelling. 

As  to  Spelling  a  word  or  two  must  suffice.  German  spelling 
will  be  discussed  in  the  last  lecture.  In  nearly  every  language 
there  is  a  discrepancy,  more  or  less  marked,  between  the  way 
in  which  the  words  are  written  and  that  in  which  they  are) 
pronounced.  The  spelling  represents  in  this  case  an  earlier 
stage  of  pronunciation,  it  is  more  or  less  '  historic '  (cp.  knight, 
veau,  Stahl).  Much  has  now  simply  to  be  committed  to 
memory,  but  again  the^adyantage  of  a  good  pronunciation  on 
the  part  of  the  children  will  TileaFIy  shew  itself  If  children 
have  been  taught  from  the  beginning  to  distinguish  in  French 
properly  between  e,  e  and  e,  they  will  without  fail  write  reponse, 
but  repos,  and  representer,  pere,  and  desespere.  If  they  are 
accustomed  to  pronounce  the  German  modified  vowels — one 
of  the  greatest  stumbling-blocks  in  the  way  of  English  students 
of  German — no  confusion  between  Tochter  and  Tochter, 
Bur  gen  and  Bur  gen,  geachtet  and  geachtet,  tauschen  and  tauschen 
would  be  possible.  They  would  distinguish  in  writing  between 
reisend,  reissend  and  reizend,  between  versehren  and  verzehren, 
between  Senne,  Sehne,  Scene,  and  Zdhne. 

Grammar.       V 

It  is  pretty  generally  admitted  that  up  to  now  the 
getting  up  of 'grammatical  niceties  and  curiosities  has  been  far 
too  prominent  in  most  of  our  schools,  and  that  grammar  should 
not  be  taught  and  learned  at  school  principally  for  its  own 
sake — not  even  in  our  modern  '  grammar  schools.'  It  should 
be  taught  in  order  to  explain  difficult  passages  and  in  order  to 
help  the  pupils  to  group  together,  to  compare,  and  thus  better 
to  understand  certain  important  linguistic  phenomena.  The 


1 8       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

study  of  grammar  and  the  careful  analytical  examination  of 
sentences  is  no  doubt  a  most  valuable  mental  training — 
although  it  is  wrong  to  say,  as  is  often  rashly  done,  that  the 
study  of  grammar  is  a  study  of  logic ;  grammar  is  often  not 
logical — still  the  special  and  minute  study  of  grammar  as  such 
is  not  school  work  but  should  be  left  to  the  scientific  treatment 
of  the  University.  Every  school  child  should  know  the  chief 
points  of  the  grammar  of  the  foreign  tongue,  but  only  the 
master  should  have  made  it  a  special  study.  He  should  of 
course  be  thoroughly  well  grounded  in  his  grammar,  moreover — 
and  this  is  important — he  should  be  able  to  give,  wherever  it 
may  be  desirable,  the  'why7  no  less  than  the  'what/  He 
should  know  the  historical  or  phonetic  reasons  of  the  chief 
grammatical  phenomena1 — but  it  would  be  a  grave  mistake  if 
^he  were  to  introduce  too  much  of  this  special  knowledge  into 
his  class  teaching.  The  classics  should  be  read  and  enjoyed— 
I  am  not  sure  whether  they  always  are  at  present — and  they 
should  certainly  not  be  turned  in  class  into  a  hunting-ground 
for  grammatical  curiosities.  The  somewhat  elaborate  notes  to 
the  classics  in  the  Pitt  Press  and  similar  editions  are  merely 
intended  to  facilitate  home  preparation,  and  to  help  the  pupils 
thoroughly  to  understand  the  words  of  the  text,  they  are 
certainly  not  meant  to  be  learned  by  heart  in  order  to  be 
reproduced  in  the  next  examination  paper.  They  are  intended 
to  relieve  the  teacher  and  to  give  him  time  for  reading  the 
text  and  discussing  the  scenes  and  characters  of  great  plays, 
but  not  to  disgust  children  with  a  beautiful  poem  or  a  fine 
story. 

From  this  there  follows  as  the  very  first  precept  addressed 
to  the  teacher  of  foreign  grammar  :  Do  not  burden  the  memory 
of  your  pupils  with  too  many  rules,  still  less  with  numerous 
lists  of  words  following  their  own  rules,  those  words  which 
we  call  'exceptions,'  and  which  are  as  a  rule  so  very 

1  See  Ernst  Laas,  '  Der  deutsche  Unterricht  auf  hoheren  Lehranstalten ' 
(2nd  ed.  (by  J.  Imelmann),  Berlin,  1886),  pp.  217 — 222. 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  19 

largely  utilized  by  a  vast  number  of  examiners  whom  I  wish 
I  could  call  exceptions  also.  All  we  want  to  teach  and  to 
impress  firmly  on  the  memory  of  the  children  is  .a  number  of 
ever-recurring  facts,  certain  rules,  briefly  and  clearly  expressed, 
deduced  from  the  texts  before  the  eyes  of  the  children,  and  in 
addition  to  these  only  a  very  few  of  the  most  noteworthy 
exceptions.  Most  '  practical '  school  grammars  contain  far  too 
much  ;  they  would  certainly  be  twice  as  good  if  they  were  half 
as  full.  They  should  chiefly  be  used  as  books  of  reference. 

Another  important  point  is  that  the  rules  should  invariably 
be  preceded  by  a  number  of  well-chosen  instances,  selected 
phrases  from  which  the  pupils  with  the  assistance  of  the 
teacher  will  find  it  easy  and  interesting  to  deduce  the  rules  for 
themselves.  This  is  the  natural  process  of  thinking — by  com- 
parison of  similar  facts  the  underlying  law  is  discovered1.  All 
the  rules  which  a  teacher  wants  to  impress  upon  his  pupils,  he 
should  make  them  find  themselves  !  The  process  may  be  at 
first  somewhat  slow,  but  the  interest  of  the  pupils  will  never  be 
allowed  to  flag,  and  ultimately  the  rules  will  be  much  better 
known,  being  remembered  in  their  application  and  not  merely 
in  themselves. 

Our  model  teacher  will,  I  fear,  in  many  cases  have  to 
make  up  his  own  illustrative  sentences,  for  what  shall  we  say 
of  exercises  such  as  the  following  :  Decline  in  full :  '  The  blind 
mouse,'  or  of  the  exercise  on  the  numerals:  'Have  you  got 
two  apples?'  'No,  but  my  four  sisters  have  six  dolls'?...!  have 
often  pitied  teachers  and  pupils  who  had  to  work  through  such 
elaborate  grammars,  often  containing  subtle  distinctions  of  which 
the  Germans  themselves  are  entirely  ignorant  and  which  only 
live  an  artificial  life  in  the  German  of  certain  examination 
papers.  You  might  read  in  connection  with  this  a  pamphlet 
which,  although  it  is  full  of  exaggerations  and  indeed  not 
free  from  mistakes,  yet  contains  a  great  deal  of  truth;  it  is 

1  This  point  is  not  by  any  means  new,  but  was  emphasised  by  Comenius 
and  others. 


2O       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

4  The  caricature  of  German  in  English  Schools,'  by  Curt 
Abel  Musgrave,  London,  1894. 

Must,  then,  grammar  be  dry  and  repulsive  to  children  ?  It 
certainly  was  so  under  the  old  system  when  all  schools  were 
4 grammar  schools'  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word.  But 
cannot  even  Dame  Grammatica  be  made  attractive  to  the 
minds  of  the  young  ?  I  think  she  can,  and  everything  depends 
on  the  way  in  which  a  teacher  will  first  introduce  her  to  the 
children. 

First  of  all  he  will  not  give  too  much  at  a  time,  and  that 
modicum  chiefly  in  connection  with  the  passages  read.  He 
will  also  give  the  children  some  idea  as  to  the  actual  meaning 
of  '  rules '  and  '  exceptions,'  and  keep  the  rules,  i.e.  the  large 
groups  of  facts,  constantly  before  them,  so  as  gradually  to 
develop  their  Sprachgefilhl,  the  unconscious  and  unerring 
feeling  for  what  is  right,  the  creation  of  which  is  one  of  the 
highest  aims  of  the  teacher.  He  will  discuss  the  terms  'regular' 
and  '  irregular '  in  the  proper  way  and  choose  a  few  easy  and 
striking  instances  for  his  explanations.  Even  children  at  school 
should  sometimes  get  a  glimpse  of  the  '  why '  and  the  '  how,' 
although  as  a  rule  they  have  of  course  only  to  remember  the 
very  commonest  'what.'  With  children  of  the  highest  forms 
even  a  few  somewhat  more  advanced  grammatical  phenomena 
may  be  discussed  as  occasion  offers  itself,  viz.  the  problems 
of  ordinary  form-association  (e.g.  in  Goethe's  '  Legende  vom 
Hufeisen' :  Das  ein  zerbrochen  Hufeisen  was.  was,  now  war, 
through  form-association  with  the  plural  waren ;  but  cp.  English 
was  and  were  where  the  old  difference  is  preserved) ;  the 
development  of  Latin  words  in  French,  German  and  English, 
the  two  groups  of  words  which  are  distinguished  as  'mots 
populaires'  and  'mots  savants'  (meuble,  mobile— Kerker,  Karzer 
— sure,  secure),  the  former  of  which  is  the  older  group  in  which 
the  words  have  undergone  the  effect  of  the  usual  sound-laws  of 
the  language.  Of  course  all  such  instruction  should  be  kept 
strictly  elementary — yet  it  would  be  sure  to  interest  the  children 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  21 

and  give  them  more  correct  notions  of  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  language.  Good  German  instances  are  found  in  the 
little  book  by  E.  Wasserzieher,  'Aus  dem  Leben  der  deutschen 
Sprache'  (3^.),  also  in  R.  Kleinpaul,  'Das  Fremdwort  im 
Deutschen'  (is.  Sammlung  Goeschen,  55),  and  in  the  books 
by  O.  Behaghel  and  O.  Weise  (see  pages  69 — 70).  The 
relation  of  English  to  French  and  German  should  be  briefly 
and  clearly  explained.  The  relation  of  numerous  words  such 
as  finir  and  finish,  or  Leib  and  life,  might  very  well  be  shewnV 
(For  classified  lists  of  correspondences  between  German  and 
English  words  see  my  edition  of  'Doctor  Wespe'  by  R.  Benedix. 
Pitt  Press  Series,  1888, 2i895.)  Rather  than  not  touch  on  these 
points  at  all,  sacrifice  the  greater  number  of  exceptions,  in 
fact  a  good  deal  of  what  our  practical  grammars  give  in  small 
print,  and  what  should  not  be  got  up  at  all  but  only  be  referred 
to  as  occasion  offers.  The  discussion  and  brief  explanation 
of  such  important  general  phenomena  is  of  far  greater  edu- 
cational value  than  the  somewhat  mechanical  drill  in  rare 
exceptions  or  seldom  used  words  and  phrases. 

Idioms. 

The  study  of  idiomatic  phrases  and  the  acquisition  of  a 
useful  vocabulary  cannot  be  begun  too  early.  But  only  the 
really  current  idioms  should  be  committed  to  memory,  and 
sentences,  not  isolated  words,  should  be  learned.  The  princi- 
pal idioms  should  be  imparted  gradually  and,  where  advisable, 
explained.  Ancient  manners  and  bygone  customs  have  left  many 
an  interesting  trace  in  the  idiomatic  phrases  of  everyday  speech. 
An  explanation  of  German  idioms  such  as  einem  die  Stange 
halten — einen  im  Stiche  lassen — mir  schwant  Boses — einem  ein 
X  fur  ein  U  machen — einen  Kerb  bekommen  and  many  others 
would  not  fail  to  arouse  the  interest  of  the  class,  to  set  their 
imagination  going,  and  thus  to  help  them  to  remember  the 
idioms.  In  most  schools  they  are  unduly  neglected.  The 


22       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

necessary  books  of  reference  for  the  teacher  of  German  are 
given  on  p.  71  and  in  my  i Guide'  on  p.  39;  there  are  some 
smaller  books  intended  for  the  use  of  the  pupils,  e.g.  those 
by  Koop  (London,  2i89i),  Becker  (London,  1891),  and  Weisse 
(London,  1892),  but  a  really  first-rate  book  for  class  purposes 
has  still  to  be  written. 

Vocabulary. 

Apart  from  the  vocabulary,  which  the  pupils  will  gradually 
acquire  in  a  somewhat  haphazard  way  from  the  reading  of 
foreign  authors,  the  teacher  should  from  the  beginning  aim  at 
adding  systematically  to  the  stock  of  words  learned  by  his 
class.  He  will  do  this  by  regular  discussions  of  small  groups 
of  words  which  are  either  connected  by  their  sense  or  by  their 
form  and  which  will  be  learnt  by  the  class.  He  will  of  course 
form  short  sentences  shewing  the  ordinary  use  of  these  words 
or,  in  lower  forms,  have  recourse  to  pictures  composed  for  the 
purpose  (e.g.  Holzel's  'Wandbilder  fiir  den  Anschauungs-  und 
Sprachunterricht,'  10  pictures,  Wien,  Holzel1),  or  G.  Egli's 
cheap  and  useful  little  picture-books  with  vocabulary  called 
'Satze  fiir  den  Unterricht  in  den  vier  Hauptsprachen '  (Bilder- 
saal  ftir  den  Sprachenunterricht),  Zurich,  Orell  Fiissli.  He  will 
take  such  series  of  words  as :  father,  mother,  child,  son, 
daughter... i.e.  all  the  ordinary  (but  no  unusual)  family  names. 
Another  day  he  will  take :  house,  court,  garden,  street,  road ; 
...or  sun,  moon,  star,  cloud,  thunder,  lightning... the  sun  sets, 
a  cloud  covers  the  moon,  the  thunder  roars,  the  lightning 
flashes...;  or  tree,  bush,  oak,  beech,  fir,  willow... together  with 
the  verbs  :  to  plant,  to  grow,  to  burst  into  leaf,  etc.  The 
teacher  will  do  well  to  work  the  necessary  words  and  phrases 
into  short  and  interesting  dialogues,  or  into  stories  which  he 

1  In  connection  with  these  may  be  used  the  books  called  '  Konversations- 
Unterricht  nach  Holzel's  Bildertafeln '  (German,  French,  Italian,  English) 
published  by  Emil  Roth  at  Giessen.  The  German,  French,  etc.  parts  can 
be  had  separately. 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  23 

will  tell  the  children  several  times  in  the  foreign  language  and 
which  he  will  make  them  repeat,  write  down  from  dictation, 
and  learn  by  heart.  Subjects  such  as  'a  walk  in  the  country/ 
'a  thunderstorm  at  sea/  £a  cycling  accident  in  the  street/ 
'  a  visit  of  our  uncle  from  Berlin  or  Paris '  would  afford  plenty 
of  useful  material  for  increasing  the  vocabulary  of  the  pupils. 
The  numerals,  the  pronouns,  the  forms  of  address  make  natural 
groups  which  should  be  studied  together  and  worked  into  a 
number'of  well-devised  sentences.  Together  with  the  numerals 
the  chief  foreign  measures,  weights  and  moneys  should  be  given 
with  their  English  equivalents.  Some  foreign  coins  should 
be  shewn  to  the  class  when  their  name  and  value  is  given. 

Another  way  of  increasing' the  vocabulary,  which  is  often 
very  useful  with  more  advanced  pupils,  is  the  study  of  ordinary 
words  which  are  connected  by  form  :  sitzen,  setzen,  Sitzung, 
Satzung,  Sitz,  Satz  (Aufsatz,  Einsatz,  Vorsatz^  Absatz),  aufsitzen, 
absitzen,  nachsitzen,  einsetzen,  absetzen,  vorsetzen^  versetzen,  be- 
setzen,  iibersetzen,  Besitzung,  Besatzung,  Besetzung^  Versetzung, 
or  steigen,  Steig  (Bahnsteig,  Steigbugel\  Stieg  (Aufstieg,  Abstieg), 
Steg,  em-,  aus-,  um-steigen . . .etc.  The  difficulty  here  is  where 
to  stop,  but  the  conscientious  teacher  who  has  prepared  his 
lesson  beforehand  and  has  written  down  the  words  which  he 
intends  to  give  to  his  pupils  will  not  be  exposed  to  the  danger 
of  giving  too  much,  viz.  words  which  are  of  but  little  practical 
importance  for  school  purposes.  Word-formation  is  at  present 
far  too  much  neglected  in  school-teaching. 

A  third  way  of  widening  the  vocabulary,  and  one  which 
should  only  be  used  occasionally  in  the  highest  forms  by  a 
skilful  and  well  informed  teacher,  is  the  method  (so  far  as  it  can 
be  used)  of  etymological  comparison.  (See  the  lists  of  sound- 
correspondences  in  my  Pitt  Press  edition  of '  Doctor  Wespe.') 

I  should  not  advise  teachers  to  confine  themselves  to  one 
method  only — some  change  is  always  refreshing — but  to  take 
the  first  method  (the  '  series '  method — a  simplified  *  Gouin ' 
method)  as  a  foundation,  and  to  make  the  children  learn, 


24       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

gradually  and  systematically,  all  the  most  important  words  of 
the  foreign  language — and  none  but  those. 

Some  hints  how  this  may  be  done  are  contained  in  a 
German  pamphlet  on  the  first  teaching  of  French.  It  is  by 
Dr  Hermann  Soltmann  and  is  called  '  Das  propadeutische 
Halbjahr  des  franzosischen  Unterrichts  an  der  hoheren  Mad- 
chenschule/  Bremen,  1893.  What  is  said  there  with  regard 
to  French  at  German  schools  holds  equally  good  with  regard 
to  our  English  schools.  A  similar  guide  for  English  teachers  of 
German  is  I  believe  still  to  be  written.  Some  other  German 
books  of  a  similar  character  are  enumerated  in  the  biblio- 
graphical appendix  to  these  lectures. 

Conversation. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  a  master  should  talk  to 
his  class  in  the  foreign  language  as  early  as  possible.  He  will 
begin  by  discussing  pictures  and  objects  which  are  placed 
before  the  pupils  (e.g.  Egli's  or  Holzel's  pictures ;  see  above). 
At  first,  of  course,  in  order  to  be  understood,  he  will  occasion- 
ally have  to  give  some  short  explanations  in  English,  and  he 
will  not  talk  French  or  German  the  whole  time.  Gradually 
the  necessary  explanations  in  the  English  language  will  become 
less  frequent  and  the  talk  in  the  foreign  language  will  be 
continued  longer.  The  master  must  from  the  beginning  make 
all  the  children  take  an  active  part  in  the  lesson;  they  must  be 
interested — stimulated  to  make  out  what  the  master  says  and 
to  express  in  the  foreign  tongue  what  they  see  him  doing.  He 
has  first  to  train  their  ear  and  their  faculty  of  catching  the 
peculiarity  of  the  foreign  sounds  and  intonation,  then  their 
faculty  of  speech.  He  must  make  them  answer  in  complete  / 
sentences — all  of  them,  not  only  the  few  forward  pupils — he' 
must  in  every  way  endeavour  to  overcome  their  first  natural 
shyness  and  disinclination  to  use  the  foreign  idiom.  Most 
English  boys  and  girls  are  unwilling  to  try  to  speak  any  other 
language  than  their  own,  and  it  will  require  all  the  skill  and 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  25 

tact  of  a  master  in  whom  they  believe  to  draw  them  out.  He 
will  naturally  make  them  speak  at  first  exclusively  of  things 
which  they  see  or  have  observed  and  experienced,  about  topics 
well  known  to  them,  the  vocabulary  of  which  they  have 
mastered.  In  order  to  fulfil  this  condition  the  teacher  must  of 
course  be  full  of  resource  besides  being  able  to  converse  in  the 
foreign  idiom  with  ease  and  fluency.  A  French  candidate  for 
the  degree  of  Agrege  is  required  by  the  regulations  of  the 
examination  to  teach  for  an  hour  in  the  foreign  language.  A 
German  modern  language  master  is  required  in  his  'Staats- 
examen '  to  shew  fluency  and  correctness  in  the  practical  use 
of  the  foreign  language  which  he  wants  to  teach1.  Our  English 
examination  tests  are  in  this  respect  as  yet  far  from  sufficient. 
A  change  for  the  better  seems  however  to  be  setting  in2. 

In  speaking  the  foreign  language  the  teacher  should  at 
first  make  use  of  some  picture,  say  the  map  of  Europe,  and 
teach  according  to  the  direct  method,  beginning  perhaps  by 
pointing  to  England  and  saying3: 

Dies  ist  England.       Was  ist  dies?       Dies  ist  England. 
Dies  ist  Deutschland.      Was  ist  dies?      Dies  ist  Deutsch- 

land. 
England  (Deutschland)  ist  ein  Land.       Das  grosse  Land, 

ein  grosses  Land.     Deutschland  ist  ein  grosses  Land. 
Dies  ist  die  Nordsee.'^pie  Nordsee  ist  ein  Meer. 

1  A  still  much  stricter  '  Pruftingsordnung '  will  be  published  before  long. 

2  At  Cambridge  the  institution^  of  a  new  voluntary  viva  voce  Examina- 
tion on  a  much  larger  basis  and  OT  a  much  more  searching  nature  than  the 
present  voluntary  oral  test  is  just  under  consideration  and  will  probably 
soon  become  a  fact.    It  will  probably  be  in  connection  with  our  two  Modern 
Language  Examinations  for  the  B.A.  degree. 

3  Cp.  now  the  excellent  chapter  on  the  teaching  of  German  on  a  direct 
system   by  Professor  Spencer  in   his   'Aims   and    Practice  of  Teaching' 
(Cambridge,  1897),  pp.  100 — 120.     My  specimen  above  given  was  con- 
structed before  the  appearance  of  Dr  Spencer's  valuable  experiment.     On 
a  similar  experiment  (by  Dr  Findlay,  Mr  Twentyman  and  Mr  Kirkman) 
see  the  Bibliographical  Appendix  p.  59  under  7  and  12. 


26       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

Dies  1st  der  Rhein.     Der  Rhein  ist  ein  Fluss. 
Der  Fluss  fliesst  in  das  Meer  (in  die  Nordsee). 
Dies  ist  die  Elbe.         Die  Elbe  ist  auch  ein  Fluss. 
Die  Elbe  fliesst  auch  in  die  Nordsee. 
Der  Rhein  und  die  Elbe  sind  Fliisse. 
Die  Elbe  ist  ein  grosser  deutscher  Fluss. 

A  number  of  questions  and  answers — carefully  pronounced 
— would  serve  to  make  the  children  familiar  with  the  foregoing 
sentences  and  the  sounds  contained  in  them.  Then  a  sum- 
mary of  the  grammatical  material  contained  in  these  sentences 
would  be  made  by  the  teacher  speaking  English,  thus  : 

Der,  die,  das — ein — dies — grosser,  grosse,  grosses — ist,  sind 
— fliesst — Fluss,  Fliisse — der  Fluss,  das  Land,  das  Meer,  der 
Rhein,  die  Elbe,  die  Nordsee — England,  Deutschland,  deutscher. 

Or  a  teacher  might  start  with  Egli's  little  picture  books  and 
discuss  all  the  scenes  of  everyday  life  with  his  pupils,  especially 
with  young  children  in  the  lower  forms.  With  older  children 
historical  and  geographical  pictures  should  be  discussed  also. 

In  order  to  secure,  without  risk  of  losing  it  again,  an  easy 
command  of  the  foreign  idiom,  teachers  of  Modern  Languages 
should  have  resided  abroad  and  should  from  time  to  time  go 
abroad  again.  But  a  prolonged  stay  in  a  foreign  country  will 
be  valuable  in  other  ways  also.  It  will  enable  teachers  to  see 
with  their  own  eyes  and  to  speak  from  personal  experience. 
They  will  be  more  just  and  sympathetic  in  their  judgment  of 
foreign  excellence  and  foreign  peculiarities.  Residence  abroad 
is  so  far  nowhere  compulsory,  no  European  State  requires  it 
expressly  of  its  Modern  Language  teachers;  but  in  France, 
where  of  late  the  State  has  done  much  for  Modern  Languages, 
to  have  resided  abroad  is  virtually  a  condition  of  appointment 
to  good  posts.  Travelling  exhibitions  are  given  in  Germany, 
Austria,  Switzerland,  and  France  by  the  State  and  by  munici- 
palities ;  and  in  Sweden,  I  am  informed,  on  such  a  scale  that 
every  Modern  Language  teacher  receives  one  every  five  years 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  27 

on  an  average.  America,  as  is  well  known,  gives  a  prolonged 
leave  of  absence  every  seventh  year,  and  also  bursaries.  At 
the  Neuphilologentag  at  Hamburg  (1896)  it  was  resolved  to 
memorialise  the  German  government  to  the  effect  that  "for  the 
maintenance  of  conversational  facility  and  the  knowledge  of 
foreign  life  and  customs,  leave  of  absence  should  be  granted  to 
teachers  of  Modern  Languages — whether  in  Universities  or 
High  Schools — at  certain  fixed  intervals  of  time  (at  least  every 
five  years)."  In  England  the  State  does  not  directly  interfere 
in  these  matters,  but  it  is  very  desirable  that  teachers  of 
Modern  Languages  should  help  themselves  to  keep  up 
their  practical  efficiency,  and  that  Headmasters  should  help 
them  by  granting  an  occasional  leave  of  absence.  This  is 
a  point  of  the  very  greatest  importance  and  one  that 
the  Modern  Language  Association  should  be  interested  in 
taking  up.  At  Birmingham  Professor  Fiedler  has  succeeded 
more  than  once  in  raising  a  sum  of  ^50  to  be  given  as  a 
travelling  scholarship  to  students  of  the  Mason  College. 
Here  County  Councils  and  private  donors  can  do  much  good. 

At  present  there  exist  in  various  French  (3  ?)  and  in  three 
German  University  towns  so-called  *  Holiday  courses'  in  which 
lectures  in  the  language  of  the  country  are  given,  opportunities 
for  the  constant  use  of  the  foreign  language  offered,  practice  in 
phonetic  drill  arranged,  and  illustrations  in  method  (often 
4 direct  method'  courses)  given.  Such  summer  meetings  are 
being  held  in  July  and  August  at  the  German  Universities 
of  Greifswald  (on  the  Baltic  Sea),  Marburg  (on  the  Lahn), 
and  Jena  (near  Weimar  and  the  Wartburg).  The  French 
meetings  are  arranged  at  Paris  by  the  Alliance  Franchise 
(apply  to  the  Secretary,  45  Rue  de  Grenelle)  and  (at  Caen 
and  Tours)  by  the  Modern  Language  Holiday  Courses  Com- 
mittee (apply  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Teachers'  Guild,  74, 
Gower  Street,  London,  W.C.).  These  meetings  are  being 
attended  by  an  increasing  number  of  English  teachers  and 
students,  and  many  of  my  own  students  have  derived  the 


28       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

greatest  benefit  from  attending  them.  Moreover  the  Ferien- 
kurse  are  cheap,  part  of  them  specially  devised  for  the 
needs  of  foreigners  and,  from  all  I  have  heard  of  them  from 
a  number  of  students  of  both  sexes,  are  most  enjoyable1.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  our  students  and  teachers  of  Modern 
Languages  will  very  largely  benefit  by  repeated  visits  abroad  in 
the  congenial  society  of  fellow-teachers  and  in  daily  practice  of 
the  foreign  idiom.  They  should  live,  if  possible,  in  a  German 
or  French  family  where  they  could  be  the  only  foreigners, 
and  not  go  to  one  of  the  large  boarding-houses,  which  are 
obviously  the  most  unsuitable  places  to  go  to  if  one  wants  to 
learn  a  foreign  language.  There  is  a  growing  conviction  that 
the  teaching  of  Modern  Languages  in  our  Secondary  schools 
should  henceforth  as  a  rule  not  be  entrusted  to  foreigners  but 
to  duly  qualified  English  men  and  women.  I  believe  that  this 
is  a  very  sound  and  well  justified  view — I  cannot  discuss  it 
here  at  length — and  the  only  advice  I  have  to  give  to  intending 
teachers  no  less  than  to  those  who  have  entered  the  profession, 
is  :  Go  abroad  as  much  as  you  can,  improve  and  deepen  your 
knowledge  of  the  language  and  of  the  people  as  much  as  is  in 
your  power2.  Here  at  Cambridge  we  have  now  (1898)  for 
fourteen  years  past  been  training  teachers  of  Modern  Lan- 
guages, and  there  have  been  among  them  very  few  indeed 
who  did  not  manage  to  go  abroad  at  least  once,  during  the 

1  See  also  the  Modern  Language  Quarterly,  I.   (July,    1897),  p.   37; 
II.  (November,  1897),  p.  89;  the  Mod.  Q.  of  Lang,  and  Lit.  n.  (July,  1898), 
PP-   J53~ 60;  and  also  several  notices  in   T'he  Journal  of  Education  and 
other  educational  papers. 

2  Books  such  as  Kron's  *  Le  petit  Parisien '  and  Hamann's  '  Echo  der 
deutschen  Umgangssprache '  will  be  found  extremely  useful.     Students  and 
teachers  should  be  provided  with  Jaschke's  little  pocket  dictionaries  of 
French  and  German,  with  the  Baedekers  of  Paris  (or  Northern  France,  in 
French)  or  Berlin  (or  Norddeutschland,  Rhein,  etc.  in  German);  Langen- 
scheidt's  *  Notworterbuch  der  franz.  Sprache'  in.   ('Land  und  Leute  in 
Frankreich ') ;    Mahrenholz,    'Frankreich'    (Leipzig,    1897);    and   consult 
Klopper's 'Franzosisches  Real-Lexikon'  (Leipzig:  in  course  of  preparation). 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  29 

three  or  four  years  they  were  reading  for  their  Modern  Lan- 
guages Tripos.  Most  of  them  went  abroad  two  or  three  times 
during  their  residence.  In  order  to  derive  real  benefit  from 
their  stay  abroad,  students  and  teachers  should  very  carefully 
prepare  themselves  for  it.  The  way  in  which  they  should 
proceed  to  study  abroad  is  indicated  in  my  lecture  on  the 
training  of  Modern  Language  Teachers. 

Reading. 

As  the  object  of  Modern  Language  teaching  is  in  my 
opinion  to  teach  not  only  the  foreign  language,  but  at  the  same 
time  by  means  of  it  the  principal  features  of  the  life  and 
character  of  a  foreign  nation,  it  follows  that  the  material  for 
reading  should  be  chosen  so  as  to  promote  this  aim. 

A  most  careful  selection  of  suitable  material  should  be  made, 
and  a  systematic  gradation  of  Reading  should  be  devised. 

After  a  good  many  object  lessons  in  which  the  common 
objects  of  the  foreign  country  are  called  by  their  foreign  names 
and  discussed  in  a  variety  of  sentences,  there  might  follow  a 
Primer  containing  a  number  of  well-chosen  characteristic 
illustrations.  From  the  very  beginning  the  Reading  should  be 
connected  with  the  history  and  geography  of  the  foreign 
country.  A  good  clear  map  of  Germany  (or  France)  with 
German  (or  French)  names  should  be  hung  up  in  the  Modern 
Language  class  room  during  all  German  or  French  lessons. 
German  names  of  German  places  should  be  taught  throughout 
(why  are  they  usually  given  in  French  spelling  and  in  English 
pronunciation?),  e.g.  Aachen,  Koln,  Mainz,  Wiirzburg,  Miin- 
chen,  Braunschweig,  Wien,  Donau,  Weichsel,  Vogesen,  etc. 

In  the  middle  classes  a  well  compiled  Reader  should  form 
the  centre  of  all  Modern  Language  teaching.  It  would  be  a 
graduated  continuation  of  the  Primer  used  in  the  lower  forms. 
The  ideal  Reader  for  English  Schools  has  so  far  not  yet  been 
written.  E.  Hausknecht's  'The  English  Student/  perhaps 
also  W.  Victor's  and  F.  Dorr's  '  Englisches  Lesebuch,'  or 


30       TJie  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

O.  Jespersen's  and  Chr.  Sarauw's  '  Engelsk  Begynderbog' 
(Kj^benhavn,  1896)  are  the  books  which  I  should  set  up  as 
models  to  be  followed. 

In  the  upper  forms  the  Reader  should  be  replaced  by  the 
study  of  some  of  the  best  classical  works. 

Nature  of  the  proposed  ' Reader' 

Our  model  '  Reader ' — which  is  as  yet  unwritten — should 
contain  only  pieces  illustrating  the  life  and  thought  of  foreign 
nations  in  olden  and,  still  more,  in  our  own  times.  The 
selection  should  be  made  by  an  experienced  teacher  with  skill 
and  tact,  and  above  all  in  a  spirit  of  sympathy  with  foreign 
excellence  and  of  interest  in  foreign  peculiarities.  Its  aim 
must  obviously  be  to  make  the  children  understand  foreign 
ways  of  thinking,  but  not  to  encourage  in  them  a  spirit  of 
immature  and  self-asserting  criticism.  The  texts  should  as 
far  as  possible  be  accompanied  by  a  series  of  illustrations. 
A  complete  vocabulary  at  the  end,  carefully  compiled,  with  easy 
phonetic  transcriptions  of  especially  difficult  words  :  and  short 
references  to  obvious  etymological  comparisons  with  English, 
would  much  enhance  the  usefulness  of  such  a  Reader. 

Anything  not  in  harmony  with  these  principles  should  be 
strictly  excluded  from  the  Modern  Language  reading  books. 
From  a  model  Reader  of  French  and  German  I  should  for 
instance  unhesitatingly  exclude  a  description,  however  brilliant, 
of  the  l  battle  of  Marathon/  or  '  a  trip  to  the  Isle  of  Wight/  or 
'  a  sunset  in  the  desert/  or  '  the  character  of  the  Chinese/  or 
'  Warren  Hastings.'  I  should  also  discard  general  anecdotes 
such  as  'remarkable  cleverness  of  a  fox-terrier/  or  'the  boy 
and  the  serpent/  etc.  On  the  other  hand  I  should  gladly 
admit  'a  trip  from  London  to  Paris/  'a  visit  to  the  South  of 
France/  or  '  to  the  Rhine/  or  '  to  the  Black  Forest/  a  '  visit  to 
the  Louvre/  or  'to  the  Castle  at  Heidelberg/  or  'to  Cologne 
Cathedral/  'a  reception  into  the  Academic  Frangaise/  'a 
speech  by  Bismarck  in  the  Reichstag/  '  a  German  school-treat/ 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  31 

*  a  Turnfahrt,'  'a  Sangerfest/  etc.  Or  subjects  such  as  '  Henri  IV. 
and  the  foreign  ambassadors/  '  the  Emperor  Max  and  his  fool 
Kunz  von  Rosen,'  *  Frederick  II.  and  the  miller  of  Sanssouci,' 
'  Bismarck  and  the  Austrian  Ambassador/  or  '  Goethe's  corre- 
spondence with  Carry]  e/  or  some  letters  of  Lessing  or  Schiller 
or  of  Moltke  or  Bismarck. 

Pieces  such  as  these  would  be  just  as  useful  to  the  pupils 
learning  the  German  language  as  those  contained  in  the  present 
books,  and  they  would — each  of  them — in  addition  illustrate 
some  point  of  German  history,  geography,  life  and  thought,  and 
would  furnish  excellent  material  for  comparison  and  discussion. 

In  addition  to  the  selected  pieces  in  prose  and  verse  I 
should  put  into  the  Reader : 

(1)  Good   clear   maps,  not   too  small,  of  Germany  and 
France ;    rivers   and   places   to  be   given   with   their   foreign 
names.     Special  maps  of  Berlin  and  Vienna  (or  Paris)  and 
surroundings  should  be  included. 

(2)  Tables  of  foreign  measures,  weights,  and  moneys  (the 
latter  perhaps  with  coloured  illustrations — few  English  children 
realise  the  size  and  value  of  a  German  Pfennig  or  have  seen 
German  nickel  money)  together  with  their  English  equivalents. 

(3)  Pictures  of  the  flags  and  ensigns  of  foreign  nations, 
also  the  German  spread-eagle  (as  seen  on  all  official  docu- 
ments),  the   emblem   of  the   French   Republic,   and   similar 
illustrations  of  importance  and  interest  which  can  easily  be 
procured. 

(4)  Enumerations  of  the  principal  ranks  and  titles,  together 
with  the  proper  forms  of  address. 

(5)  Letters  of  various  kinds,  ordinary  letters  (social  and 
commercial)  as  well  as  some  of  a  higher  and  of  the  highest  type. 
Some  of  the  German  letters  should  be  in  German  handwriting. 

(6)  A  list  of  all  the  most  common  abbreviations  used  in 
the  foreign  languages. 

A  Reader  containing  all  these  items  could  most  profitably 
be  made  the  basis  of  instruction  in  the  foreign  tongues. 


32       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 


Study  of  the  Classics. 

For  the  use  of  the  highest  forms  of  schools  a  charac- 
teristic selection  of  truly  representative  works  should  be  made, 
beginning  with  some  rather  easy  works.  A  sort  of  4  canon '  of 
all  that  is  really  first-rate  and  at  the  same  time  suitable  for 
school-reading  should  be  devised.  This  again  would  be  a 
really  useful  subject  for  discussion  among  the  members  of  the 
Modern  Language  Association,  and  the  columns  of  the  new 
Modern  Language  Quarterly  would  be  at  the  disposal  of 
persons  of  experience  anxious  to  discuss  this  most  importanjt 
problem.  As  but  little  time  can  be  allotted  to  Modern  Lan- 
guages in  the  curricula  of  our  High  Schools,  it  is  of  paramount 
importance  that  no  book  but  the  very  best,  the  most  suitable 
and  the  most  characteristic,  should  be  set  for  school-reading. 
This  is  so  far  very  frequently  not  the  case ;  a  number  of  the 
books  prescribed  and  edited  with  English  notes  do  not  deserve 
to  be  studied  in  schools  to  the  neglect  of  other  works,  which 
are  no  more  difficult  and  far  more  attractive  and  important 
than  the  books  actually  studied. 

The  ' canon'  of  works  to  be  read  should  of  course  be 
sufficiently  comprehensive  to  admit  of  frequent  changes,  viz. 
at  one  time  one  of  Lessing's  plays,  at  another  one  of  Goethe's  or 
Schiller's  or  Grillparzer' s  or  some  other  great  dramatist  might  be 
set,  the  same  standard  of  difficulty  being  kept.  But  nothing  that 
is  not  of  real  literary  excellence  should  be  read,  and  for  this 
reason  for  instance  Kotzebue's  old-fashioned  and  one-sided  farce, 
'  Die  deutschen  Kleinstadter,'  which  is  at  present  much  read 
in  France  and  of  which  there  is,  unfortunately,  also  an  English 
edition,  should  be  sternly  rejected.  School-children  would  get 
nothing  but  wrong  notions  about  German  life  from  the  reading 
of  this  farce,  while  a  more  modern  and  infinitely  superior  play, 
Gustav  Freytag's  comedy,  '  Die  Journalisten,'  is  not  read  half  as 
much  as  it  deserves  to  be. 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  33 

A  ' canon'  of  poems  to  be  learned  by  heart — after  due 
explanation  and  recitation  by  the  master — should  also  be 
devised.  There  should  be  a  gradation  from  the  easier  to  the 
harder,  and  the  older  poems  should  be  repeated  from  time  to 
time  in  later  terms. 

.    Some  prose  pieces  (fables,  parts  of  speeches)  might  also 
occasionally  be  committed  to  memory  and  recited  with  proper 
intonation  before  the  class.     If  properly  treated  this  is  really  a 
most  useful  exercise,  but  of  course  the  master  must  take  care  j 
that  the  piece  is  well  learned,  well  understood,  and  recited  j 
with  the  proper  expression.    The  pieces  thus  learned  should  be  * 
models  of  style  and  need  not  be  at  all  long.     Here  is  a  large 
field  for  really  useful  investigation  and  much  wanted  reform. 
These  exercises  will  be  found  to  '  pay '  all  the  better  when  the 
necessary   changes   in    Modern    Language    examinations    are 
made  and  due  importance  is  attached  to  the  spoken  language. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  and  it  is  indeed  probable  that  this  change  for 
the  better — an  all  important  change  for  the  proper  teaching  and 
study  of  the  modern  living  tongues — will  soon  take  place. 

I  sincerely  hope  that  before  long  all  the  better  schools  in 
this  country  will  allow  more  time  to  the  study  of  Modern 
Languages,  which  is  the  first  and  foremost  condition  of  success 
in  teaching.  In  the  meantime  find  out 

(1)  How  many  hours  for  how  many  terms  and  years  you 
will  have  at  present  at  your  school ;  then 

(2)  Make  a  general  plan  of  work  on  a  clearly  conceived 
system. 

(3)  Endeavour  to  bring  about  a  fruitful  interchange   of 
ideas  with  your  fellow-teachers,  especially  with  your  colleagues 
at  the  same  school,  as  to  what  should  be  read. 

The  study  of  foreign  classics  should  be  less  dependent 
upon  '  set  books '  appointed  for  examinations.  The  draw- 
backs of  getting  up  'set  books'  are  well  known.  They  may 
be  too  hard  or  they  may  be  too  easy  for  a  great  number  of 
pupils.  They  are  often  merely  learned  by  rote — completely 
B.  i 


34       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

spoiling  the  child's  pleasure  in  the  book — and  at  all  events  a 
disproportionate  amount  of  time  is  given  in  most  schools  to 
the  getting  up  of  one  or  two  books,  while  four  or  five  of  the 
same  size  might  have  been  read  and  enjoyed  within  the  same 
space  of  time.  Sometimes,  of  course,  prescribed  books  may 
fit  in  well  and  be  just  the  thing  to  study.  But  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  they  often  disturb  the  harmonious  development  of 
the  subject,  coming  in  at  the  wrong  time  for  individual  forms 
and  taking  the  place  of  books  which  should  be  read  by 
preference.  The  following  is  a  true  though  rather  an  extreme 
case  of  the  neglect  of  the  classics.  Some  time  ago  I  had  to 
examine  a  candidate  orally  who  told  me  that  he  had  done 
German  for  more  than  three  years.  When  I  asked  him  what 
authors  he  had  read  in  this  time  he  answered  '  I  have  only 
read  one  set  book,  but  I  have  worked  through  many — exami- 
nation papers'  ! 

More  than  once  I  have  been  asked  by  teachers  :  Do  you 
think  that  the  French  and  German  iyth  and  i8th  century 
classics  should  still  be  read  in  English  schools  ?  This  question 
is  most  frequently  asked  by  teachers  who  know  only  of 
utilitarian  and  commercial,  but  not  of  educational  ends  in  the 
study  of  modern  foreign  literature.  We  should  here  beware  of 
our  friends.  There  is  no  doubt  a  decided  increase  in.  the  in- 
terest taken  in  Modern  Languages  all  over  the  country,  but 
unfortunately  this  interest  is  in  many  cases  not  educational  but 
purely  commercial.  These  advocates  of  '  Moderns  versus 
Ancients '  forget  that  education  and  culture  are  the  ends  of 
all  study,  and  that  the  very  best  is  just  good  enough  for  the 
education  of  our  children.  That  kind  of  education  which  the 
better  schools  should  give  cannot  be  got  from  the  trashy  stuff 
which  some  utilitarian  pedagogues  propose  to  substitute  for  the 
great  works  of  the  noblest  minds.  It  is  true  that  the  study  of 
Moliere's  Misanthrope  does  not  always  help  us  to  read  the 
poems  of  Paul  Verlaine,  still  less  is  Schiller's  *  Wallenstein ' 
the  most  suitable  preparation  for  the  study  of  the  '  Berliner 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  35 

Borsenkurier ' — but  I  trust  that  you  will  all  agree  with  me  that, 
practical  as  the  teaching  of  Modern  Languages  must  be, 
teachers  have  no  right  to  withhold  from  their  more  advanced 
pupils  the  knowledge  of  some  of  the  greatest  works  of  modern  / 
literary  art,  works  full  of  beauty  and  of  noble  ideas  expressed  inj 
choice  language.  It  is  a  privilege  of  teachers  to  shew  to  their 
pupils  how  these  great  works  of  art  should  be  appreciated  and 
enjoyed.  Their  zeal  and  enthusiasm  should  fire  that  of  their  ( 
pupils.  Above  all,  in  schools  in  which  the  ancient  classical 
writers  are  but  little  read  or  not  read  at  all,  all  the  more  stress 
should  be  laid  on  the  careful  study  of  a  number  of  foreign 
masterpieces  of  the  lyth  and  i8th  centuries. S  These  con- 
victions do  not  in  the  least  prevent  me  from  admitting  that 
some  suitable  thoroughly  modern  texts  should  be  read  from 
time  to  time  by  the  side  of  the  great  classics,  especially  in  the 
lower  forms  or  in  a  specially  short  term.  There  will  be  ample 
time  for  reading  a  considerable  amount  of  good  literature  on  the 
modern  sides  of  good  boys'  schools  and  in  all  the  high  schools 
for  girls,  as  teachers  in  the  future  will  devote  less  time  to 
teaching  of  grammar  pure  and  simple,  and  very  little  to  the 
mechanical  manufacturing  of  colourless  mosaic  translations 
from  English  into  the  foreign  language. 


The  method  of  reading  with  a  class. 

The  most  careful  preparation  on  the  part  of  the  teacher — 
and  not  only  of  the  young  teacher — is  absolutely  necessary  for 
success.  He  has  not  merely  to  consider  what  is  to  De  said, 
but  what  is  not  to  be  said,  and  in  the  case  of  what  he  says  how 
it  should  be  said  and  impressed  upon  the  minds  of  the  young. 

A  good  teacher  will  of  course  never  be  content  with 
walking  into  his  class  room  and  saying  on  the  subject  he  is 
to  teach  just  what  happens  to  occur  to  him — he  will  carefully 
sift  his  material,  reduce  and  simplify,  dwell  on  the  important 

3—2 


36       The   Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

points,  in  short,  work  according  to  a  well-conceived  plan  and 
without  omission  of  any  point  of  importance  for  the  children. 
The  fact  that  everything  has  been  thought  out  beforehand 
need  not  make  his  delivery  dry  and  dull,  either  to  himself  or 
to  his  class.  In  order  to  make  his  lesson  interesting  and 
fruitful  I  would  advise  a  young  teacher  as  follows :  Find  out, 
as  far  as  possible  by  question  and  answer,  with  the  class  the 
facts  which  you  propose  to  teach.  Draw  out  together  with 
them  everything  that  is  of  importance  in  the  text  you  are 
studying,  encouraging  every  child  to  help  in  the  work.  Be 
careful  not  to  talk  above  the  understanding  of  the  children, 
especially  of  the  average  children,  in  the  discussion  of  a  great 
play  or  of  a  difficult  poem — do  not  talk  about  what  will  interest 
you  most,  but  about  what  the  children  want  and  have  a  right 
to  learn.  Great  care  and  tact,  also  great  self-abnegation,  is 
necessary  in  the  teaching  of  poetry  and  literature.  The  very 
best  and  deepest  thoughts  of  the  greatest  minds  are  naturally 
beyond  the  reach  of  children — yet  fortunately  there  remains 
a  very  great  deal  that  can  be  taught  and  will,  if  imparted 
carefully  and  pleasantly,  be  sure  to  bear  fruit  in  later  life. 
The  children  should  be  early  accustomed  to  look  upon  a  poem 
or  a  play  not  as  an  exercise  or  as  something  to  be  crammed 
1  for  an  examination,  but  as  a  work  of  art  to  be  appreciated  and 
|  enjoyed.  A  good  teacher  will  not  use  many  words  about  it, 
but  he  will  let  this  feeling  arise  naturally  from  the  way  in  which 
he  approaches  and  treats  the  poem.  Before  he  begins  to  read 

Ia  poem  or  a  passage  with  the  class  he  will  be  careful  to  create, 
as  it  were,  the  proper  atmosphere  for  it.  A  few  introductory 
words  will  prepare  the  minds  of  the  young,  and  then  the  poem 
will  not  fail  to  produce  the  desired  effect  upon  them.  But  if 
you  begin  the  reading  of  a  poem  by  saying  in  a  business-like 
tone  :  '  Smith,  will  you  read  the  first  stanza  of  the  poem  No.  42 
on  page  96  of  the  Reader' — of  course  the  Muse  of  Poetry  will 
have  left  the  room  long  before  Smith  has  opened  his  mouth. 
All  will  be  different  if  the  teacher  says  a  few  simple  words 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  37 

of  introduction  to  prepare  the  minds  of  the  children  before- 
hand, and  then  proceeds  to  reading  the  poem  aloud  with 
proper  pronunciation,  intonation  and  expression.  Poems  such 
as  Goethe's  *  Erlkonig '  or  Schiller's  '  Graf  von  Habsburg ' 
require  very  careful  reading  in  order  to  produce  the  fullest 
effect.  After  the  master  has  read  the  poem  he  will  have  itr 
repeated  by  the  pupils,  the  better  ones  being  first  called  upon,) 
and  will  insist  on  a  good,  careful  and  spirited  reproduction/ 
Sometimes  a  short  poem  may  be  advantageously  read  by  the 
whole  class  together.  The  teacher  should  explain  any  real 
difficulties  and  ask  questions  concerning  passages  which  requir^ 
explanation — but  he  should  not  <rr<«&_diffietilties.  In  the  case 
of  poems  it  is  often  advantageous  to  give  and  to  require  a 
paraphrase  of  difficult  lines  in  ordinary  prose,  or  to  give  before 
the  actual  reading  of  a  more  difficult  poem  a  brief  summary  of 
its  contents.  Two  poems  which  I  have  found  to  be  hard  to 
render  well  and  which  are  not  easily  understood  even  by 
pupils  of  good  ability  are  Schiller's  '  Kampf  mit  dem  Drachen' 
and  still  more  Goethe's  so-called  '  Ballade'  ('vom  vertriebenen 
und  zuriickkehrenden  Grafen ').  Never  give  a  poem  to  the  class 
to  be  learned  by  heart  without  having  first  read  and  fully! 
explained  the  whole  of  it.  Avoid  setting  very  long  poems  in( 
the  lower  and  middle  classes. 

With  the  highest  forms  you  will  be  able  to  read  pretty 
rapidly,  making  the  pupils  invariably  read  out  the  German 
or  French  texts  and  only  requiring  an  English  rendering  in  the 
case  of  rather  difficult  passages.  If  you  attempt  at  that  stage 
some  of  the  great  foreign  dramas  you  will  find  that  your  pupils 
really  enjoy  them,  when  not  obliged  to  take  line  by  line 
and  scene  by  scene  in  homoeopathic  doses — the  safest  way 
of  making  them  detest  Racine  and  Schiller  for  many  years 
to  come.  Many  mistakes  are  made  by  teachers  in  giving 
superfluous  information  or  requiring  the  pupils  to  learn  by 
rote  all  the  notes  contained  in  their  editions  of  the  classic.  A 
great  play  is  too  good  to  be  treated  as  a  storehouse  full  of 


38       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

grammatical  curiosities.  These  should  be  explained  in  the 
notes  where  they  occur,  but  their  importance  should  not  be 
exaggerated  and  no  disproportionate  amount  of  time  should  be 
allowed  for  them.  Of  course  I  do  not  intend  to  recommend 
that  the  teacher  should  pass  over  unnoticed  any  real  difficulty 
of  language  or  thought  or  allow  any  opportunity  for  awakening 
literary  taste  to  slip  by. 

In  dealing  with  a  great  play,  if  it  be  written  in  verse, 
the  teacher  should  consider  it  his  duty  briefly  to  discuss  the 
metrical  form,  of  which  nearly  all  school-children  and  even  a 
number  of  students  of  Modern  Languages  are  entirely  ignorant. 
They  should  know  the  elements  of  poetic  form — it  is  by  no 
means  a  matter  of  no  importance  in  what  form  the  poet  has 
chosen  to  express  his  thoughts.  Certain  forms  suit  the  poetic 
genius  of  certain  languages — the  iambic  trimeter  is  the  national 
tragic  metre  for  the  Greeks  as  is  the  alexandrine  for  the 
French  and  blank  verse  for  the  English.  Lessing  and  Schiller 
deliberately  adopted  in  their  later  plays  the  English  blank 
verse,  Goethe's  metre  in  *  Iphigenie '  is  more  closely  connected 
with  the  Italian  endecasillabo^  all  three  modified  the  adopted  , 
metre  to  suit  their  own  taste  and  genius.  Even  school-boys 
and  school-girls  may  fairly  be  expected  to  have  some  general 
notions  on  such  points — which,  if  properly  brought  before ' 
them,  would  be  sure  to  interest  them.  What  is  the  state  of 
things  at  present  ?  Some  years  ago  I  had  to  examine  a  great 
number  of  schools  in  Schiller's  '  Wilhelm  Tell,'  a  play  con- 
sisting of  3,290  lines.  I  ventured  to  ask  the  question:  *  In 
what  metre  is  this  play  written  ?  Give  a  brief  description  of  it.' 
Here  are  some  of  the  answers  which  I  read  with  a  shudder 
I  can  still  recall :  '  This  play  is  written  in  the  old  Italian 
ballad  metre,  that  is,  the  metre  of  Virgil's  ^neid,'  or  'The 
metre  of  this  play  is  called  Alexandrine,'  'Schiller's  Tell  is 
written  in  didactic  hexameters.'  Such  were  the  extraordinary 
statements  to  which  they  committed  themselves  after  having 
read  over  3,200  lines  of  blank  verse  !  It  was  disheartening, 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  39 

and  the  worst  was  that  children  writing  such  absolute  nonsense 
did  actually  pass  the  examination  with  credit  if  their  grammar 
and  translation  were  correct.  Who  was  to  blame?  Not  the 
children,  but  the  teachers  who  had  plainly  neglected  to  pay 
any  attention  whatsoever  to  form. 

Another  point  at  which  the  teacher  ought  to  work  with  his 
class  is  the  making  clear  to  every  child  the  plan  of  the  poet — f 
the  arrangement  of  thought — the  connection  of  the  scenes — 
the  development  of  the  action — the  climax,  perirjeteia^-aadj 
the  catastrophe — in  short  what  we  may  fitly  call  the  'inner 
form  '  of  the  drama,  the  moulding  of  the  great  mass  of  material 
in  the  mind  of  the  poet  so  as  to  assume  a  higher  artistic  form. 
Think  of  the  masterly  structure  of  Schiller's  '  Wallenstein. ' 
Here  the  master  can  do  very  much  to  develop  the  taste,  the 
judgment,  and  the  general  culture  of  his  pupils.  These  lessonsf 
should  be  the  finest  fruit  of  all  his  teaching,  they  should  never] 
be  forgotten.  How  much  can  be  done  in  this  respect  by  the 
right  man  for  a  whole  form,  I  know  from  experience,  gratefully 
recollecting  a  series  of  stimulating  lessons  on  the  German 
classics  given  during  my  last  year  at  school  by  my  own  old 
head-master  Dr  Wiedasch  of  Hanover.  But  where  is  the 
corresponding  teaching  of  English  literature  in  our  secondary 
schools?  Great  reforms  in  the  teaching  of  English  seem  to 
me  to  be  most  urgently  required  in  the  immediate  future  in 
many  schools. 

If  you  read  great  plays  with  your  best  pupils — they  should 
only  be  read  with  good  pupils — sum  up  after  each  scene,  after 
each  act.  Discuss  the  development  of  the  action,  see  how  far; 
it  has  advanced  (and  by  what  means),  what  is  still  expected 
(hoped  or  feared?).  Discuss  the  characters  and  their  motives, 
group  them,  see  in  what  way  they  develop  (if  they  develop  at 
all),  and  let  some  advanced  pupils  attempt  to  write  very  briefly  ( 
in  the  foreign  language  about  such  of  the  characters  as  specially 
interest  them.  '  Maria  Stuart'  and  'Wilhelm  Tell*  are  easy 
plays  in  this  respect,  'Minna  von  Barnhelm,'  '  Iphigenie,' 


40       The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages 

'Tasso,'  'Die  Jungfrau  von  Orleans'  and  '  Wallenstein'  present 
greater  difficulties1. 

A  teacher  is  very  considerably  helped  in  his  task  of 
explaining  a  play  and  the  chief  characters  occurring  in  it  if 
he  has  seen  it  acted  abroad  by  good  actors.  This  is  one 
among  many  other  reasons  why  teachers  of  foreign  languages 
in  going  abroad  should  go  to  large  towns,  to  great  intellectual 
centres  where  there  are  good  theatres.  Paris,  Berlin,  Vienna  and 
many  large  German  towns  will  in  this  respect  be  all  that  can 
be  desired.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  there  are  still  some  students 
and  teachers  who  are  disinclined  to  go  to  the  theatres — they 
certainly  miss  a  great  opportunity  for  better  understanding  the 
noble  plays  which  they  are  called  upon  to  explain  to  their 
pupils.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  ignore  the  obvious  fact  that 
plays  are  written  to  be  seen  on  the  stage  and  not  to  be  read  in 
an  easy-chair.  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  he  who  allows  'moral ' 
scruples  to  prevent  him  from  attending  first-rate  performances 
of  the  great  modern  masterpieces  of  dramatic  art  by  the  best 
actors  and  actresses  of  our  own  times  may  be  a  most  estimable 
person  but  will  be  wholly  unsuitable  for  the  office  of  teacher 
of  Modern  Languages.  He  would  probably  never  care  to  do 
justice  to  Schiller's  fine  essay  'Die  Schaubtihne  als  moralische 
Anstalt  betrachtet'  and  to  numerous  similar  utterances  by  him, 
Lessing,  and  Goethe.  A  teacher  of  Modern  Languages  and 
Literatures  should  do  his  best  to  cultivate  and  develop  a 
taste  for  literary  art  for  his  own  benefit  no  less  than  for  that  of 
his  pupils.  Teachers  who  wish  to  succeed  should  be  infinitely 
more  than  mere  mditres  de  langue.  As  to  books  for  the 
proper  explanation  of  plays,  those  by  G.  Freytag,  Bulthaupt, 
Bellermann,  Franz,  and  others  enumerated  in  my  '  Handy 
Guide'  pp.  75  and  103  will  be  found  most  useful. 

One  more  remark  before  I  leave  this  subject.  If  a  play 
should  happen  to  be  historical,  do  not  dwell  on  all  the  points 

1  Compare  my  article  '  How  to  study  a  masterpiece  of  literature '  in  the 
National  Home  Reading  Union  Magazine,  Special  Course,  October,  1895. 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  41 

in  which  a  poet  has  purposely  or  unconsciously  deviated  from 
history,  still  less  allow  them  to  be  crammed  for  examination 
purposes,  but  shew  by  one  or  two  really  striking  instances  in 
what  manner  a  great  tragedy-writer  has  treated  and  transformed 
the  facts  of  history.  Goethe's  '  Egmont '  and  Schiller's  '  Maria 
Stuart'  or  'Jungfrau  von  Orleans'  afford  good  examples. 
Again,  if  the  play  should  happen  to  be  Goethe's  *  Iphigenie,' 
do  not  waste  much  valuable  time  in  pointing  out  conscien- 
tiously— if  conscience  has  any  part  in  such  a  proceeding — all 
the  numerous  cases  in  which  Goethe  differs  from  Euripides,  but 
be  careful  to  discuss  fully  and  forcibly  the  great  difference  of 
the  spirit  pervading  the  whole  and  the  all-important  alteration 
of  the  ending. 

The  last  question  connected  with  Modern  Language 
teaching  with  which  I  propose  to  deal  in  these  lectures  is 

Should  Foreign  Literature  as  such  be  taught  in  Schools  ?    ^ 

I  think  not  !     It  cannot  and  it  should  not !     It  will  be  found 
difficult  enough  to  give  the  children  in  the  highest  forms  some 
general   notions    concerning   the   development   of  their   own , 
national  literature,  a  subject  hitherto  far  too  much  neglected. 

But  a  short  biographical  account  of  some  of  the  most 
prominent  modern  authors — carefully  prepared  by  the  teacher 
and  told  in  an  attractive  manner — may  very  well  be  given. 
The  children  should  know  something  about  the  greatest  modern 
foreign  writers,  they  should  know  about  their  lives,  aims,  and 
lasting  merits — they  should  have  seen  pictures  of  them  and 
take  a  real  interest  in  them.  But  these  must  only  be  the  stars 
of  the  first  magnitude.  We  must  not  attempt  to  do  too  many 
things,  but  whatever  we  undertake  to  teach,  let  us  teach  well. 

This  is  what  I  wished  to  say  about  the  teaching  of  Modern 
Languages  generally.  I  have  an  ideal  before  me  of  the  manner 
in  which  a  Modern  Language  teacher  should  set  to  work  and 
of  the  success  which  he  may  reasonably  hope  for  with  children 


42      The  Teaching  of  Modern  Foreign  Languages. 

of  ordinary  ability  and  not  extraordinary  industry  who  get 
Oftly  a  few  hours  of  German  and  French  a  week  while  all  the 
otner  subjects  are  taught  by  means  of  the  English  language. 
Under  existing  conditions  they  can  never,  as  it  were,  learn  to 
swim  freely  in  the  foreign  element,  but  they  may  and  should 
take  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  their  work,  lay  a  good  and 
solid  foundation  at  school,  and— as  the  languages  are  modern 
and  living — go  on  in  later  life  extending  their  knowledge  of 
the  foreign  tongues  and  the  great  nations  who  speak  them. 
The  stimulus  and  taste  for  this  study  must  needs  be  given  in 
the  first  instance  by  the  school  teachers— what  a  great  and 
noble  task  is  theirs  if  only  they  will  approach  it  in  the  proper 
spirit !  Eve*n  those  whose  interests  are  chiefly  directed  to  the 
promotion  of  technical  or  commercial  education  and  who 
realise  the  great  importance  of  Modern  Languages  for  these 
branches  of  human  activity,  even  these  should  remember  that 
all  special  training  in  technical  and  commercial  subjects  if  it  is 
to  be  sound  must  needs  rest  on  a  satisfactory  basis  of  thorough 
general  information.  The  teaching  of  Modern  Languages,  if 
properly  promoted  and  improved,  will  no  doubt  produce  much 
better  results  than  now  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  merely 
need  them  for  technical  or  commercial  pursuits — but  the  study 
and  teaching  of  Modern  Languages  has  a  much  higher  aim 
and  a  much  more  important  duty  to  fulfil  in  the  secondary 
education  curriculum  of  the  twentieth  century.  At  the  close 
of  our  century  I  think  I  foresee  a  great  future  for  Modern 
Language  study  in  our  schools — let  us  then  all  do  our  best  to 
make  the  most  of  our  great  opportunities  and  never  forget 
that,  in  spite  of  all  the  pressure  from  without,  we  must  not 
degrade  the  study  of  Modern  Languages  to  a  successful 
analysis  of  the  various  types  of  business  letters  or  newspaper 
articles  or  an  acquisition  of  a  certain  amount  of  everyday 
prattle  on  some  trivial  topics,  but  that  it  is  our  duty  to  teach 
Modern  Languages  in  secondary  schools  as  one  of  the  most 
valuable  elements  in  a  truly  liberal  education. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  GERMAN  IN  OUR 
SECONDARY  SCHOOLS. 


IN  this  supplementary  lecture  my  aim  is  to  throw  out  some 
hints  as  to  the  special  objects  and  the  special  difficulties  of  the 
teaching  of  German.  I  also  propose  to  give  you  my  own 
opinion  as  to  some  much  discussed  points  of  spelling,  pro- 
nunciation and  reading,  as  it  is  of  the  greatest  importance  that 
intending  teachers  should  start  with  definite  views  on  such 
vexed  points. 

But  before  entering  into  details  I  am  anxious  once  more  to 
say  most  emphatically  that  to  teach  German  in  the  highest 
sense,  even  in  middle-class  schools  and  to  children  of  ordinary 
ability,  does  not  merely  mean  to  teach  Grammar  and  Com- 
position, but  above  all  to  teach  the  spirit  of  the  language,  the 
ready  understanding  and  use  of  it,  and  by  means  of  language 
and  literature  to  spread  a  just  understanding  of  the  spirit  of  the 
German  nation,  and  to  produce  a  sympathetic  appreciation  of 
a  people  so  nearly  related  to  the  English.  The  close  con- 
nection of  the  two  greatest  Germanic  peoples  in  language, 
literature  and  feeling  should  from  time  to  time  be  pointed 
out.  The  interest  in  the  study  of  a  tongue  so  nearly  akin  to 
the  English  will  thus  be  kept  up  and  intensified. 

On  the  other  hand  it  will  be  the  task  of  a  good  teacher  to 
find  out  the  chief  and  characteristic  differences  between  English 
and  German.  He  will  do  well  to  note  down  all  the  main 


44  The  Teaching  of  German 

difficulties  experienced  by  English  children  in  learning  German, 
to  tabulate  them  for  his  own  use,  to  keep  them  continually  in 
view  and  to  make  the  children  pay  special  attention  to  them. 
By  doing  this  he  will  bring  it  about  that  the  chief  and  most 
annoying  mistakes  will  disappear  one  by  one,  and  that  the 
children  will  leave  school  with  as  fair  a  knowledge  of  German 
as  can  be  reasonably  expected — a  knowledge  much  superior  to 
that  now  possessed  by  most  children  and  by  not  a  few  students 
coming  up  to  the  Universities. 

German  Letters. 

In  a  previous  lecture  I  have  discussed  the  relation  of 
letters  and  sounds  in  a  general  way,  reminding  students  of  the 
facts  that  words  consist  of  sounds  and  not  of  letters,  and  also 
that  the  pronunciation  changes  more  rapidly  than  the  spelling, 
which  on  this  account  never  quite  accurately  represents  the 
actual  pronunciation.  To-day  I  have  to  deal  with  the  German 
letters,  the  peculiar  German  (Austrian  and  Swiss)  alphabet. 
The  question  arises  :  Should  the  use  of  German  small  and 
capital  letters,  two  new  alphabets  to  English  children,  still  be 
taught  in  our  English  schools?  This  is  a  question  which  is 
frequently  asked.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  answering  that  they 
should  certainly  be  taught  from  the  beginning,  the  new  letter 
in  connection  with  the  foreign  sound1.  The  initial  trouble  is, 
after  all,  but  small,  and  the  reason  for  incurring  it  is,  that 
whatever  the  absolute  or  the  scientific  value  of  the  German 
alphabet  may  be,  yet  as  long  as  the  great  majority  of  Germans 
use  the  German  letters  exclusively,  it  would  be  absolutely 
wrong  in  English  teachers  to  withhold  from  their  pupils 
familiarity  with  these  characters  and  not  to  train  them  in  their 
use  while  they  are  young  and  can  easily  acquire  them.  It  may 
hamper  some  of  them  very  considerably  in  later  life — I  know 
it  from  experience — if  they  cannot  read  or  write  German 
characters  with  ease  and  fluency.  Books  from  which  the 

1  This  is  called  in  German  Schreiblesen. 


/;/  our  Secondary  Schools.  45 

reading  of  the  German  handwriting  can  be  learned  are  not 
wanting,  see  p.  70  \  Clerks,  officers,  secretaries,  persons 
travelling  abroad,  let  alone  scholars,  will  one  day  be  glad  to 
be  able  to  read  German  writing  and  German  print.  Even  those 
who  in  later  life  do  not  actually  need  to  read  or  to  write  the 
German  handwriting  may  like  to  be  able  to  write  the  language 
as  the  Germans  do  it — they  will  look  upon  it  as  an  accomplish- 
ment. It  is  true  that  in  *  Local'  and  other  Examinations 
candidates  are  '  not  required '  to  use  the  German  handwriting, 
but  this  does  not  mean  that  those  who  write  German  really 
well  are  forbidden  to  write  it.  Only  the  examiners  have  found 
by  experience  that  in  most  cases  up  to  now  the  handwriting  of 
the  candidates  has  been  too  bad  to  encourage  its  use  in 
examinations.  Writing  against  time  does  not  tend  to  improve 
any  handwriting,  and  many  pupils  seem  only  to  be  able  to 
draw  German  words  letter  by  letter  in  a  medieval  monkish 
handwriting  and  cannot  possibly  hope  to  finish  their  task  in 
time  if  they  use  German  characters. 

The  same  remarks  apply  with  still  greater  force  to  the  use 
of  German  characters  in  German  books  printed  in  this  country, 
especially  in  English  school  editions  of  German  classics.  I 
think  we  are  bound  to  keep  them,  and  that  teachers  are  bound 
to  teach  them.  As  long  as  most  German  books  and  all  the 
newspapers  are  printed  in  German  type  we  cannot  afford  to 
neglect  it.  Knowing  the  history  of  the  so-called  Gothic  or 
black-letter  type  in  Germany  and  elsewhere,  I  am  of  course  far 
from  seeing  in  its  use  something  specially  German  which  it 
would  be  a  patriotic  duty  for  the  Germans  to  retain.  I  even 
wish  the  German  type  were  replaced  by  the  common  round 
type  which  for  various  reasons  deserves  to  be  recommended — 
still  I  think  we  teachers  of  German  in  England  have  no  right 
to  initiate  so  great  a  change  and  to  deny  to  our  pupils  that 
proper  training  in  the  use  of  the  German  letters  which  cannot 

1  Exercise  books  for  writing  German  letters  can  be  obtained  from 
Mr  Nutt,  270,  Strand,  London. 


46  The  Teaching  of  German 

anywhere  be  given  with  more  facility  and  success  than  at 
school.  Why  do  we  not  first  abolish  the  use  of  Greek  and 
Hebrew  letters  in  the  grammar  schools  ?  They  are  certainly  at 
least  as  hard — or  not  more  easy — and  not  more  practically 
useful  to  most  students  of  these  languages.  There  are  but  few 
German  letters  which  present  any  difficulty. 

In  reading  German  letters  teach  the  distinctions  between 
te  and  et,  6  and  t>,  f  and  f,  r  and  r,  33  and  93,  9R  and  2B, 
%  and  3,  SJ{  and  ft.  All  the  others  are  perfectly  easy1.  In 
writing  German  characters  insist  on  your  pupils  marking  the 
modification  of  vowels,  the  u  hooks,  and  the  difference  between 

«,  f.  ff,  * 

As  to  the  Modern  Spelling^  1880)  I  believe  that  it  should 
be  adopted.  It  can  very  easily  be  taught,  and  it  prevails  now 
in  all  schools  and  is  used  by  most  publishers  and  newspapers. 
It  is  decidedly  the  spelling  of  the  future,  being  a  moderate 
reform  on  the  right  lines  but  no  revolution  of  the  traditional 
spelling.  It  is  not  ideal,  but  it  is  without  doubt  better  than 
anything  to  be  met  with  in  the  seventies  of  this  century,  and 
certainly  much  better  than  the  previous  anarchy  in  spelling. 
There  is,  moreover,  no  reason  why  the  present  official  ortho- 
graphy should  not  be  revised  again  and  somewhat  improved  in 
the  course  of  the  next  century.  The  best  books  of  reference  for 
teachers  are  named  on  pp.  66,  70  and  in  my  'Guide/  pp.  34,  51. 

German  Pronunciation. 

Even  the  most  elementary  teaching — the  laying  of  a  good 
foundation — should  be  given  by  a  carefully  trained  and  duly 
qualified  master.  He  should  be  well  acquainted  with  the  ele- 
ments of  phonetics  and  should  have  a  really  good  pronunciation ; 
he  should  have  been  abroad  and  should  go  again  from  time  to 
time.  He  should  know  the  principal  differences  of  pronuncia- 
tion in  different  parts  of  the  country  and  should  be  acquainted 

1  Cp.  the  useful  word-lists  in  O.  Siepmann's  excellent  '  Public  School 
German  Primer,'  pp.  xxvii. — xxx.,  which  afford  ample  reading  practice. 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  47 

with  the  chief  shortcomings  of  the  ordinary  Hanoverian,  Saxon, 
Swabian  and  Berlin  pronunciation.  He  should  have  carefully 
considered  what  pronunciation  he  is  to  teach  and  what  the 
standard  of  refined  German  speech  requires1. 

The  present  standard  pronunciation  of  Modern  German  is 
the  pronunciation  of  the  best  actors  on  the  stage2.  Here  a 
common  pronunciation  is  absolutely  necessary.  A  play  like 
'IphigemV  would  be  completely  spoilt  if  Orestes  was  to  speak 
Swabian,  Pylades  Westphalian,  Iphigenia  Saxon,  and  King 
Thoas  East- Prussian.  While  the  forms  of  the  literary  language 
are  a  compromise  between  South  and  Middle  German,  their 
pronunciation  should  be  in  the  main  North  German.  The 
pronunciation  of  refined  Berlin  ladies  can  also  be  recommended. 
The  Hanoverian  pronunciation — excellent  as  it  is  in  many 
respects — is  not  free  from  a  number  of  very  marked  provin- 
cialisms which  should  not  be  imitated.  Being  myself  a  native 
of  the  town  of  Hanover  I  can  speak  from  personal  experience. 

A  teacher  should  invariably  read  out  the  German  text  to  be 
explained  to  his  pupils  once  or  twice  before  they  read  it  to 
him.  He  should  prepare  this  reading  most  carefully.  In 
reading  or  reciting  he  should  not  only  pronounce  the  individual 
words  correctly,  but  give  to  the  sentences  their  proper  accen- 
tuation and  modulation.  Professor  W.  Victor's  little  book  on 
'German  Pronunciation'  (pp.  112 — 133,  Leipzig,  1890)  will 
help  him  to  catch  the  proper  accent  of  the  sentence.  In  some 
cases  of  special  difficulty  he  may  well  resort  to  a  simple  method 
of  phonetic  transcription  of  German  words  and  sentences,  such 
as  is  used  by  Prof.  Victor  in  his  <  Deutsche  Lauttafel '  (which 
should  be  hung  up  in  the  class  room  during  German  lessons) 
or  in  Dr  Passy's  periodical  publication  'Le  maitre  phone'tique." 

The  following  is  a  short  tabulated  summary  of  the  chief 
difficulties  experienced  by  children  in  pronouncing  German. 

1  See  *  German  as  she  is  spoke'  (Journal  of  Education,  September, 
1897*  PP-  533  sqq. 

2  See  the  books  and  pamphlets  enumerated  in  my  '  Guide '  on  p.  35. 


48  The  Teaching  of  German 


The  chief  difficulties  of  German  pronunciation  for  English 
children  \ 

1.  ci  as  in  Mann,  Hals,  Anfang. 

The  pupils  should  be  accustomed  to  open  their  mouths  wide 
in  pronouncing  this  sound,  which  is  the  a  in  father  quite  short. 

2.  1,  e,  o,  u,  especially  before  r,  as  in  ihr,  Lehm,  rot,fuhr. 
Here  the  difficulty  lies  in  the  necessity  of  producing  a  long 

clear  vowel  without  sounding  a  second  element  after  it,  e.g. 
vier  is  not  to  be  pronounced  like  our  fear,  Lehm  not  like 
lame,  rot  not  like  wrote,  pur  not  like  poor. 

3.  o,  3,  ii,  fi,  §  as  in  Holle,  Hohle  ;  fiille,fuhle  ;  ware. 
The  modified  vowels  o,  ii,  a  (short  and  open — long  and 

closed)  do  not  exist  in  English  and  require  special  practice. 
Teachers  should  not  allow  pupils  to  say  fu(h)r  instead  of  fur, 
or  funf  instead  offimf,  etc.,  but  they  should  at  the  outset  give 
the  class  a  brief  and  clear  phonetic  explanation  of  the  position 
of  the  speech  organs  in  sounding  u  and  o,  and  should  practise 
these  sounds  whenever  an  opportunity  offers.  They  should 
also  point  out  the  difference  in  sound  between  ware  and  were, 
Kdfer  and  cave,  and  so  forth. 

4.  au  as  in  rauschen,  heraus. 

The  mouth  should  be  opened  sufficiently  for  the  a  element 
of  the  diphthong  (see  under  i).  The  second  element  resembles 
more  an  o  than  a  //. 

5.  e  in  unaccented  syllables  is  nearly  always  reduced  to  a 
dull  9,  e.g.  behende  should  be  pronounced  bahenda;  nehmen 
is  nenwn.     In  familiar  pronunciation  it  often  disappears  alto- 
gether, e.g.  leben  becomes  lebm,geben  becomes  gebm,  etc. 

6.  The  glottal  stop  before  the  initial  vowel   of  the 
second  part  of  a  compound  should  be  carefully  noticed,  e.g. 
verirren  should  be  pronounced  fdr'irdn,  Verein  is  for' am,  etc. 

7.  h  is  now  absolutely  silent  between  vowels,  as  in  sahen. 

1  The  symbols  used  are  those  of  Victor's  '  German  Pronunciation.' 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  49 

It  is  sometimes  sounded  in  artificial  school  pronuncia- 
tion. The  verb  wehen  is  to  be  pronounced  vedn,  ziehen  is 
tsim. 

8.  Final  b,  d  as  in    Weib,  Held,  Gold  are  to  be  pro- 
nounced as  voiceless  sounds  (/,  /),  hence  vaip,  he  It,  golt;  b  and 
d  after  a  consonant  do  not  lengthen  the  preceding  vowel  in 
German  as  they  do  in  some  cases  (after  /)  in   English  :  e.g. 
milt  *  mild.'     An  exception  to  this  general  rule  is  Mond. 

9.  w  has  never  the  sound  of  an  English  w  but  that  of  an 
English  v,  e.g.  wichsen  'to  black  (boots)'  is  vixen ;  after  sch  a 
w  is  bilabial  in  German,  e.g.  schwarz  is  sv farts  (NOT  sudrts). 

10.  u  after  q  has  likewise  the  sound  of  bilabial  v,  qu  =  kv, 
e.g.  Quell  is  kvel,  Qual  is  kvdl,  quer  is  kver. 

11.  The  guttural  n  before  g  and  k  when  it  is  followed 
by  a  syllable.     A  g  following  n  is  not  sounded  in  German. 

The  guttural  n  is  as  a  rule  transcribed  by  n,  #,  or  g.  The 
German  Finger  is  to  be  pronounced  findr,  singen  is  3119211, 
while  sinken  is  stnkdn.  The  pronunciation  of  words  such  as 
Engel,  Enkel ;  Range,  Ranke,  etc.  should  be  practised. 

1 2.  The  peculiar  German  ch  with  its  twofold  pronunciation 
after  front  and  back  vowels,  e.g.  Idcheln  and  lachen;  ich,  doch; 
Friichte,  Frucht ;  brdche,  brach.    Professor  Victor  would  tran- 
scribe Idcheln  by  lepln,  but  lachen  by  lacdn. 

As  ch  may  be  sounded  differently  in  forms  of  the  same 
word,  great  care  is  necessary  in  practising  the  pronunciation. 

13.  z  in  German  words  is  a  consonant  diphthong  denoting 
ts.     Pupils  should  be  early  accustomed  to  pronounce  it  well 
and  distinguish  between  Seiten  and  Zeiten,  sauber  and  Zauber, 
sog  and  zog,  Sehne,  Zdhne,  Szene  (  =  stsenz\  and  pronounce 
zwanzig  (tsvdntsif),  Zwergzwiebel  (tsverktsvtbzl). 

14.  Initial  sp  and  st  should  be  pronounced  sp,  st  as  on 
the  stage  and  in  the  greater  part  of  Germany.     The  rounding 
of  s  before/  and  /  should  take  place  just, as  it  has  taken  place 
before  /,  m,  n,  w  all   over   the   country.     The    Hanoverian 
pronunciation  is  in  this  case  archaic,  and  obviously  influenced 

B.  4 


50  The  Teaching  of  German 

by  Low  German.     Hence  sprechen  should  be  sprepn,  stehen 
should  be  stedn. 

A  number  of  smaller  points  might  still  be  touched  upon, 
such  as  the  difference  between  the  (thinner)  German  and  the 
(fuller)  English  final  //,  compare  voll  and  full,  but  the  time  at 
my  disposal  does  not  admit  a  discussion  of  them,  and  these 
hints  must  not  become  a  treatise.  The  books  by  Prof.  Victor 
and  by  Miss  Soames  will  give  teachers  all  the  necessary  informa- 
tion as  to  particular  points.  A  teacher  of  German  in  this 
country  cannot  afford  to  leave  them  unread. 

Open   Questions. 

The  pronunciation  of  initial  r  (dental  or  guttural)  and  of 
medial  and  final  g  are  still  moot  points  with  the  Germans 
themselves.  I  should  allow  a  good  deal  of  latitude  in  the 
teaching  of  them,  that  is  to  say  I  should  not  force  the  children 
to  learn  the  guttural  r  if  it  gives  them  a  great  deal  of  trouble, 
and  I  should  advocate  the  teaching  of  medial  g  between  vowels 
as  a  voiced  mute  and  not  as  a  spirant.  Hence  I  should 
transcribe  Wege  not  veJ9  but  vegd.  .  About  final  g  I  do  not 
feel  so  sure  and  should  (at  present)  admit  the  pronunciation 
v ek  and  vef  for  Weg.  The  latter  (yec)  is  the  more  familiar  one 
and  the  one  more  generally  heard,  it  seems  to  be  the  pronun- 
ciation of  the  future — hence  perhaps  the  best  plan  for  the 
present  is  to  pronounce  final  g  like  k  in  high  style  and  in 
poetry,  but  like  /  in  ordinary  prose  and  in  conversation. 

Grammar. 

The  few  words  I  propose  to  say  under  this  head  are  of 
course  entirely  dictated  by  the  practical  considerations  of  school 
teaching.  The  general  principles  have  been  discussed  in  a 
previous  lecture,  e.g.  that  only  the  chief  facts  of  grammar 
should  be  taught  and  everything  exceptional  at  first  be  care- 
fully eliminated — that  grammar  should  not  be  taught  at  school 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  51 

for  its  own  sake  and  that  everything  should  be  deduced  from 
carefully  chosen  examples  of  good  modern  German. 

What  is  the  standard  ?  I  think  the  usage  of  first-rate 
modern  writers  such  as  Heyse,  Spielhagen,  Wildenbruch, 
Storm,  Geibel,  Bodenstedt,  Freiligrath,  Fulda  and  others.  But 
teachers  should  be  careful  in  the  use  of  examples  from  Freytag, 
Scheffel,  Keller,  Raabe,  Rosegger,  Sudermann,  Hauptmann  and 
others  whose  writings  are  not  free  from  archaisms,  mannerism, 
dialectic  usages  and  even  a  good  deal  of  slang.  These 
writings  may  of  course  be  great  works  of  art,  but  they  cannot 
be  used  for  school  purposes  or  invariably  as  models  of  refined 
modern  prose. 

The  existing  Grammars  of  German  compiled  for  the  use  of 
English  schools  have  nearly  all  serious  defects  in  addition  to 
those  general  shortcomings  noted  in  a  previous  lecture : 

(1)  They  do  not  sufficiently  distinguish  between  familiar, 
ordinary  and  historical,  and  elevated  modern  prose. 

(2)  They  do  not  distinguish  between  modern   language 
and   the  language  of   the   great    i8th    century   classics.     In 
many   cases  we    cannot    say   and    write    now  what    Lessing, 
Goethe  and  Schiller  could  and  attempted. 

(3)  They  do  not  as  a  rule  distinguish  carefully  enough 
between  prose  and  poetry. 

Hence  the  instances  from  the  German  classics  in  most  of 
our  Grammars  require  a  very  thorough  overhauling.  A  teacher 
should  know  German  very  well  himself  so  as  not  to  be  hope- 
lessly dependent  on  the  grammar  he  happens  to  use. 

(4)  Another  prevalent  fault  is  the  failure  to  distinguish 
between  the  cases  used  in  connection  with  certain  verbs,  e.g. 
geniessen,  entbehren,  rufen^  etc.     It  is  absolutely  misleading  to 
say,  as  most  grammars  and  dictionaries  do,  '  entbehren  takes 
either   the  gen.    or  'the  ace.'     It  is  true   that    Hermann  (in 
*  Hermann  und  Dorothea')  says:  Ich  entbehre  der  Gattin,  but 
it  is  archaic  and  cannot  be  said  now.     In  good  modern  prose 
we  use  the  accusative  exclusively.     Again  in  the  case  of  rufen 

4—2 


52  The  Teaching  of  German 

the  accusative  is  now  the  only  possible  case,  e.g.  er  ruft  mich. 
The  dative  which  occurs  sometimes  in  elevated  style  is  very 
expressive,  e.g.  when  the  Spirit  of  the  Earth  says  to  Faust 
Wer  ruft  mir  ?  l  Who  calls  for  me  ?'  But  such  rare  and  poetic 
constructions  should  be  briefly  explained  when  they  occur  in 
the  text  before  the  pupils  and  not  before. 

A  good  teacher  should  not  only  teach  the  dry  facts  of 
grammar,  but  sometimes  in  appropriate  cases  give  an  explana- 
tion. In  my  previous  lecture  I  have  cautioned  teachers  not 
to  go  too  far;  but  they  may  well  here  and  there  give  some 
colour  to  their  teaching  by  supplying  an  easy  explanation,  e.g. 
on  the  origin  of  many  German  prepositions,  kraft — laut — wegen 
(why  do  they  take  the  genitive  ?)  or  of  adverbs  :  flugs — rings — 
spornstreichs — aller dings ,  etc.  A  word  on  the  nouns  in  -ei  and 
the  ending  -ieren  in  verbs  would  interest  many  of  the  older 
boys,  also  on  doublets  such  as  Kerker  and  Karzer,  Bursch  and 
Borse,  dichten  and  diktieren.  Even  the  inorganic  /  in  eigentlich, 
geflissentlich  after  the  analogy  of  hoffentlich^  flehentlich  (for 
flehend-lich  Mike  one  imploring')  might  be  occasionally  ex- 
plained to  more  advanced  pupils.  They  will  thus  get  a 
glimpse  of  the  life  of  the  language.  There  is  no  lack  of 
handy  books  of  reference  for  the  teacher  of  German  who  is 
anxious  to  obtain  fuller  information1. 

But   be   very   careful   that   your   pupils   do   not  use   any 
scientific    terms    without   properly   understanding    their   exact 
meaning  and  their  full  bearing.     Do  not  allow  them  to  explain 
away  difficulties  by  one  of  the  three  ever-recurring  phrases  : 
1  for  the  sake  of  euphony/ 
*  by  false  analogy '  (with  what  ?  why  false  ?), 
or  *  for  the  sake  of  the  metre,' 

as  if  Goethe  or  Schiller  could  not  have  managed  their  versifi- 
cation properly ! 

I  have  said  that  a  teacher  will  find  out  the  chief  difficulties 

1  See   my  essay:    'The   Reference- Library  of  a   School   Teacher  of 
German,5  printed  on  pp.  63 — 82  of  this  book. 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  53 


of  his  pupils  and  will  work  hard  at  these  while  he  will  pass 
quickly  over  things  which  are  naturally  easy  to  English  children. 
The  principal  difficulties  of  German  Grammar  seem  to  me 
to  be  especially  the  following  (I  must  of  course  in  a  lecture 
like  this  restrict  myself  to  some  typical  cases) : 

(1)  The  right  use   of  the  prepositions  and    of  the   case 
required  in  connection  with  them.     The  grammars  are  not 
quite  sufficient  in  this  respect,  e.g.  the  short  rule  as  to  '  rest ' 
and  *  motion'  does  not  suffice  in  the  case  of  auf  and  iiber. 
The  right  use  of  the  prepositions  is  a  great  difficulty. 

(2)  The  inflexion  of  the  adjectives.     The  threefold  use  of 
the  adjective  (strong  and  weak  inflexion  and  uninflected  form) 
is    characteristic    of    the   German   language.      This   point   is 
really  easy — a  number  of  typical  instances  will  suffice  to  teach 
it.     These  examples  should  be  dictated  and  learned  by  heart. 

(3)  The  modifications  of  root-vowels  in  plurals,  comparisons, 
and  derivatives.     Here  a  good  and  careful  pronunciation  will 
be  of  great  help — but  much  must  simply  be  learned  by  heart, 
e.g.  Tag,  Tage  but  Schlag,  Schldge. 

(4)  The  strong  verbs ;  the  separable  verbs. 

The  principal  ones  must  be  committed  to  memory ;  com- 
parison with  English  (singe,  sang,  gesungen — sing,  sang,  sung) 
will  in  many  cases  be  helpful,  and  at  all  events  remind  pupils 
that  a  verb  may  be  strong.  In  the  case  of  the  separable  and 
inseparable  verbs  the  principal  ones,  but  only  the  principal 
ones,  should  be  learned  early,  and  a  good  pronunciation 
should  be  insisted  upon.  Instead  of  giving  the  infinitives 
(ubersetzen  and  ubersetzen)  it  will  be  preferable  to  teach  the 
ist  persons  ich  seize  iiber,  *I  put  across'  and  ich  ilber seize,  'I 
translate.' 

Pupils  should  be  told  that  as  a  rule  in  cases  where  the 
force  of  the  preposition  is  still  felt  and  a  local  meaning  prevails 
the  verb  is  separable,  but  it  is  inseparable  where  the  English 
equivalent  is  not  a  true  English  verb  plus  a  preposition  but  a 
compound  borrowed  from  the  Latin  and  where  the  meaning  is 


54  The  Teaching  of  German 

abstract  and  metaphorical.  Thus  iibersetzen  '  put  across/ 
ilbersetzen  ' translate';  wiederholen  'fetch  back,'  wiederhblen 
*  repeat';  diirchgehen  'go  through,'  durchgehen  'pervade';  um- 
gehen  '  go  round  about,'  umgehen  '  circumvent,'  etc. 

(5)  The  order  of  words  in  a  sentence.  This  is  of  the  very 
greatest  importance  and  causes  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  at 
first,  but  it  can  be  learnt  fully  during  the  time  the  children  are 
at  school.  Begin  very  early  with  very  simple  sentences- 
enlarge  them— alter  them  and  turn  them  about — gradually 
introduce  the  various  kinds  of  dependent  clauses.  Make  your 
own  examples  if  necessary,  let  the  children  copy  them,  refer  at 
first  invariably  to  the  same  examples  until  the  Sprachgefuhl 
of  the  children  is  sufficiently  well  developed.  Begin  with  a 
number  of  sentences  such  as  : 

Das  Mddchen  findet  das  Buch 

The  girl  finds  the  book. 

Das  Mddchen  hat  das  Buch  gefunden 

The  girl  has  found  the  book. 

Many  instances  of  a  similar  kind  should  be  given  before  you 
go  on,  always  adding  a  little : 

Das  schone  Madchen,  welches  wir  heute  gesehen  haben, 
hat  seinen  guten  Vater  verloren,  etc.  etc. 

Invent  a  story  or  a  fable,  and  embody  in  it  the  chief  things 
you  are  anxious  to  illustrate,  e.g.  the  principal  differences 
between  English  and  German  syntax. 


Genders. 

The  German  genders  are  indeed  very  troublesome  to 
foreigners,  more  especially  to  English  girls,  who  as  a  rule  do 
not  do  Latin  and  Greek  and  are  therefore  more  apt  to  forget 
about  the  genders.  There  are  hardly  any  good  rules  about 
them.  I  wish  there  were.  I  cannot  say  more  than  the 
grammars.  I  freely  admit  that  children,  while  at  school, 


in  our  Secondary  Schools.  55 

can  hardly  be  expected  to  acquire  an  absolutely  correct 
knowledge  of  genders.  But  on  the  other  hand  I  do  not 
think  that  the  genders  are  quite  as  hard  as  they  are  sometimes 
made  out  to  be.  In  the  amusing  chapter  'On  the  awful 
German  language'  added  to  his  delightful  < Tramp  abroad' 
Mark  Twain  has  with  a  great  deal  of  humour  exaggerated  the 
difficulties.  I  think  that  the  children  may  very  well  be 
expected  to  know  the  genders  of  all  the  principal  and  really 
important  German  words.  Here  the  { systematic  vocabulary ' 
referred  to  in  a  previous  lecture  should  be  useful. 

Die  Sonne — der  Mond — der  Stern — die  Wo  Ike — etc.  Of 
course  in  learning  words  children  should  not  say  Sonne — sun 
but  die  Sonne — the  sun,  always  adding  the  definite  article. 
A  story  might  be  made  up  by  the  teacher  which  he  should 
first  tell  and  then  dictate  to  the  class.  The  pupils  would 
learn  it  by  heart  and  could,  in  case  of  subsequent  doubts  or 
mistakes,  be  referred  back  to  it.  An  account  of  a  ramble 
in  the  country  might  end  as  follows :  '  Der  Gipfel  des  Berges 
war  bald  erstiegen.  Von  ihm  sahen  wir  die  Sonne  unter- 
gehen  und  bald  nachher  den  Mond  und  den  Abendstern 
am  Himmel  aufgehen.  Eine  diistre  Wolke  verdeckte  den 
schonen  Stern  auf  kurze  Zeit,  ein  starkes  Gewitter  zog 
herauf,  ein  greller  Blitz  folgte  dem  andern,  der  Donner  rollte, 
der  Regen  floss  in  Stromen ;  bald  aber  war  das  schwere 
Wetter  vorbei  gezogen  und  das  Licht  des  freundlichen 
Sternes  leuchtete  wieder  zu  uns  herab.' 


Word  Formation. 

Only  the  most  important  facts  of  German  word-formation 
(derivation  and  composition  and  the  old  formation  by  vowel 
gradation)  should  be  taught,  but  word  formation  will  naturally 
play  an  important  part  in  the  construing  lessons  and  will  be 
sure  to  interest  the  children  if  properly  brought  before  them. 
A  well-informed  teacher  may  well  now  and  then  explain  the 


56  The  Teaching  of  German. 

formation  of  a  word  with  the  view  of  giving  the  pupils  a  glimpse 
of  old  German  life,  customs,  and  beliefs.  The  discussion  of 
the  names  of  the  days  of  the  week,  words  such  as  O stern, 
Weihnachten,  Fastnacht,  Hochzeit,  Brautlauf  (in  Schiller's 
'Tell'),  would  be  sure  to  interest  and  instruct  the  children. 
In  saying  this  I  am  of  course  far  from  advocating  a  display 
of  etymological  information  which  would  be  beyond  the  under- 
standing of  the  children  and  out  of  place  in  school-teaching. 
Again  an  occasional  word  as  to  family  names  such  as  Baumann, 
Agricola,  Jacobi,  Jacobssohn,  Jacobs,  or  of  German  and  foreign 
proper  names  such  as  Dietrich,  Leopold,  Ludwig,  Wolfram, 
Rudolf,  Minna,  Adelheid,  Gertrud — Andreas,  Philipp,  Moses, 
Ludovica,  Louise — Dietrich  Kraft  and  Ludovica  Jacobi,  could 
be  made  most  interesting  and  valuable  even  to  children.  Such 
instruction  should,  however,  not  be  given  systematically  but 
only  as  occasion  offers. 

I  should  be  much  pleased  if  in  these  lectures  I  should 
have  succeeded  in  throwing  out  some  hints  which  will  prove 
useful  in  your  teaching,  and  in  firing  your  enthusiasm  for  a 
subject,  the  study  and  teaching  of  which  grows  more  attractive 
and  more  important  with  every  year.  The  way  is  long,  the 
aim  is  high — let  us  make  a  resolute  attempt  to  reach  the  goal 
or  at  least  not  fall  too  far  short  of  it ! 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL   APPENDIX. 


PERIODICALS1. 

1.  The  Modern  Language  Quarterly  (now  The  Modern  Quarterly 
for  Language  and  Literature}.     Edited  by  H.  Frank  Heath, 

with  the  assistance  of  E.  G.  W.  Braunholtz,  Karl  Breul, 
I.  Gollancz,  A.  W.  Pollard,  W.  Rippmann,  and  V.  Spiers. 
Since  1897.  London.  Dent  &  Co.  (2^.  6d.  each  part.) 

2.  Modern    Language    Notes.      Edited  by  A.    Marshall   Elliott, 

James  W.  Bright,  Hans  C.  G.  v.  Jagemann,  Henry  Alfred 
Todd.  Baltimore.  Since  1886.  Eight  numbers  a  year. 
(Subscription  in  advance,  js.  a  year.) 

3.  Archiv  fur  das  Studium  der  Neueren  Sprachen  und  Littera- 

turen,  begriindet  von  Ludwig  Herrig,  herausgegeben  von  Aloys 
Brandl  und  Adolf  Tobler.  The  looth  vol.  has  just  appeared. 
Braunschweig.  1898.  Yearly  4  Hefte.  (8s.  a  year.) 

4.  Die  Neueren   Sprachen,  Zeitschrift   fur  den   Neusprachlichen 

Unterricht.  Mit  dem  Beiblatt  "Phonetische  Studien."  In 
Verbindung  mit  Franz  Dorr  und  Adolf  Rambeau  herausgegeben 
von  Wilhelm  Victor.  Marburg.  Yearly  ten  parts.  Since  1893. 
(I2J.  a  year.) 

5.  Zeitschrift  fur   den    deutschen    Unterricht,    begriindet    unter 

Mitwirkung  von  Rudolf  Hildebrand,  herausgegeben  von  Otto 
Lyon.  Leipzig.  Since  1887.  Monthly.  (i2s.  a  year.) 

1  The  full  titles  of  most  of  the  above  mentioned  and  of  many  other 
important  periodicals  are  given  in  the  first  chapter  of  my  'Handy  Guide.' 
The  Journal  of  Education  should  also  be  referred  to.  With  regard  to  the 
prices  mentioned  see  note  2  on  p.  64. 


f- 


58  Bibliographical  Appendix. 

6.  Zeitschrift  fur  neufranzosische   Sprache   nnd  Litteratur,  mit 

besonderer  Beriicksichtigungdes  Unterrichts  im  Franzosischen 
auf  den  deutschen  Schulen,  herausgegeben  von  G.  Korting  und 
E.  Koschwitz.  The  present  general  editor  is  D.  Behrens. 
Oppeln  and  Leipzig.  (Now  Berlin.)  Since  1879.  Tne 
periodical  is  no  longer  exclusively  devoted  to  Modern  French, 
and  the  present  title  is  Zeitschrift  fiir  franzosische  Sprache  und 
Litter atur.  (i$s.  a  year.) 

7.  Revue    de    Venseignement    des    langues    vivantes,    edited    by 

A.  Wolfromm.     Paris.     Since  1883.     (15^.  a  year.) 

8.  Le  maitre  phonetique,  organe  de  1'association  phone'tique  inter- 

nationale,  edited  by  Paul  Passy.  Paris.  (Bourg-la-Reine.) 
Since  1885.  (y.  a  year.) 

9.  Litteraturblatt  fiir  Gennanische  und  Romanische  Philologie, 

herausgegeben  von  Otto  Behaghel  und  Fritz  Neumann. 
Leipzig.  Since  1880.  Monthly,  (us.  a  year.) 

10.  Verhandlungen  der  deutschen  Neuphilologentage.   Every  second 
year  one  volume  of  proceedings. 

BOOKS,   PAMPHLETS   AND    ESSAYS1. 

1.  Allcock   (A.  E.}.     The   teaching    of    Modern    Languages    (in 

"Essays  on  Secondary  Education  by  various  contributors," 
ed.  Chr.  Cookson,  pp.  149  sqq.).  Oxford.  1898.  (4^.  6d.  cloth.) 

2.  Atkinson   (H.    IV.).      An   Experiment   in    Modern    Language 

Teaching  (Journal  of  Education,  May  1897).  On  the  articles 
by  F.  B.  Kirkman.  His  reply  is  contained  in  the  Jotirn.  of 
Educ.  June,  1897. 

1  The  books,  pamphlets  and  essays  enumerated  are  unequal  in  value 
and  not  invariably  written  from  the  same  point  of  view,  but  they  will  all  be 
found  suggestive  and  helpful.  These  lists  do  not  comprise  all  that  is  worth 
reading  on  the  subject,  their  aim  being  simply  to  point  out  a  certain 
number  of  recent  contributions  to  the  study  of  Methods  of  Modern  Language 
Teaching  which  teachers  will  find  it  useful  to  refer  to.  Several  articles 
contained  in  the  Journal  of  Education  (October  1896  and  the  following 
months)  are  very  suggestive.  For  further  information  see  Miinch's  and 
Glauning's  book  (described  under  18)  which  gives  very  valuable  biblio- 
graphical lists.  The  books  most  useful  for  the  teacher  of  German  are 
discussed  on  pp.  64 — 82. 


Bibliographical  Appendix.  59 

3.  Bahlsen   (L.\      Der  franzosische   Sprachunterricht   im  neuen 

Kurs.     Berlin.     1892.     (is.  6d.  unbound.) 

4.  Brfal   (Michel}.      De   1'enseignement    des    langues    vivantes. 

Paris.     1893.     (is.  Sd.  unbound.) 

5.  Brebner  (Mary}.    The  Method  of  Teaching  Modern  Languages 

in  Germany.     London.     1898.     (is.  6d.  cloth.) 

6.  Colbeck  (C.).     On  the  teaching  of  Modern  Languages  in  Theory 

and  Practice.    Two  Lectures.     Cambridge.    1887.    (2s.  cloth.) 

7.  Findlay  (7.).     An  Experiment  in  Modern  Language  Teaching 

(Journal  of  Education,  October,  November,  December  (with 
A.  E.  Twentyman),  1896).     See  Kirkman. 

8.  Franke  (F.).     Die  praktische  Spracherlernung  auf  Grund  der 

Psychologic   und    der   Physiologic   der    Sprache    dargestellt. 
Leipzig.     1890.     (8d.  unbound.) 

9.  Hartmann  (K.  A.  M.\     Die  Anschauung  im  neusprachlichen 

Unterricht.     Wien.     1895.     (&£  unbound.) 

10.  Hartmann  (K.  A.  M.).     Reiseeindriicke  und  Beobachtungen 
eines  deutschen  Neuphilologen  in  der  Schweiz  und  in  Frank- 
reich.     Leipzig.     1897.     (3^.  unbound,  43.  cloth.) 

11.  Jeffrey  (P.  Shaw).     How  shall  we  learn  French  ?     (Journal  of 
Education,  October,  1897.) 

12.  Kirkman   (F.   B.).     An   Experiment    in    Modern    Language 
Teaching  (Journal  of  Education,  February,  April,  1897).     See 
Findlay;   Atkinson. 

13.  Klinghardt  (//".).      Ein    Jahr    Erfahrungen    mit    der   neuen 
Methode.     Marburg.     1888.     (is.  Sd.  unbound.) 

14.  Klinghardt  (//".).     Drei  weitere  Jahre  Erfahrungen  mit  der 
imitativen  Methode.     Marburg.     1892.     (zs.  6d.  unbound.) 

15.  Kiihu  (V.  K.).     Entwurf  eines  Lehrplans.     Marburg.     1889. 
(is.  unbound.) 

16.  Mangold (W.).     Geloste  und  ungeloste  Fragen  der  Methodik. 
Berlin.     1892.     (&d.  unbound.) 

17.  Munch  (W.).     Zur  Forderung  des  franzosischen  Unterrichts. 
Heilbronn.    1883.    2nd  improved  ed.    Leipzig.     1895.    (zs.6d. 
unbound.) 


60  Bibliographical  Appendix. 

18.  Munch  (W.)  und  Claiming  (Fr.).     Didaktik  und  Methodik 
des    franzosischen    und   englischen    Unterrichts.      Munchen. 
1895  (from   Dr  A.  Baumeister's  'Handbuch  der  Erziehungs- 
und  Unterrichtslehre  fiir  hohere  Schulen3).   This  book  contains 
a  most  valuable  up  to  date  bibliography.     (4^.  6d.  unbound.) 

19.  Roden  (A.  v.).     In  wiefern  muss  der  Sprachunterricht  um- 
kehren?    Marburg.     1890.     (i^.  8^.  unbound.) 

20.  Spencer  (Fr.).    Chapters  on  the  aims  and  practice  of  teaching. 
Chapter  III.  (French   and   German,  by  the  general  editor). 
Cambridge.     1897.     (6s.  cloth.) 

21.  Storr  (Fr.).    The  Teaching  of  Modern  Languages  (French  and 
German)  in  "Teaching  and  Organisation,  with  special  reference 
to  Secondary  Schools.     A  manual  of  practice,  edited  by  P.  A. 
Barnett."     London.     1897.     pp.  261 — 280.     At  the  end  of  this 
essay  some  other  contributions  by  Mr  Storr  to  the  question  of 
Modern  Language  Teaching  are  enumerated.     See  also  A.  T. 
Pollard's  remarks  on  pp.  24 — 26  of  the  same  volume.     (6s.  6d. 
cloth.) 

22.  Tanger  (£.).     Muss  der  Sprachunterricht  umkehren  ?    Berlin. 
1888.     (gd.  unbound.) 

23.  Victor  (W.).    (Quousque  tandem.)    Der  Sprachunterricht  muss 
umkehren.       Heilbronn.       1882.      Reprint    1886.       (Sd.    un- 
bound.) 

24.  Waetzoldt  (St.).     Die  Aufgabe  des  Neusprachlichen  Unter- 
richts und  die  Vorbildung  der  Lehrer.     Berlin.     1892.     (is. 
unbound.)     (Compare  the  "  Verhandlungen  des  fiinften  allge- 
meinen    deutschen    Neuphilologentages    zu    Berlin     (1892).) 
Hannover.     1893.     PP-  25  sqq-  and  the  reviews  of  Waetzoldt's 
lecture    in   '  Die    Neueren    Sprachen'    i.    48   sqq.    (Victor); 
"  Mitteilungen  zur  Anglia"  in.  361  sqq.  (Wendt);  uZeitschr. 
f.  franz.   Spr."  xiv.   i   sqq.  (Stengel);    "Englische   Studien" 
xix.  137  sqq.  (Kolbing);  "  Litteraturblatt  f.  germ,  und  roman. 
Philologie "  XV.  130  sqq.  (Koschwitz). 

25.  Walther  (Max).     Der  franzosische  Klassenunterricht.     Mar- 
burg.    1888,  2i895.     (is.  $d.  unbound.) 


Bibliographical  Appendix.  61 

26.  Ware  (F.).      Phonetics    and    Modern    Language    Teaching 
(Journal  of  Education,  August,  1897).     See  Kirkman. 

27.  Widgery  ( W.  //".).    The  teaching  of  languages  in  Schools. 
London.    1888.  (With  a  very  full  bibliography.)   This  pamphlet 
is  now  unfortunately  out  of  print. 

28.  Methods  of  teaching  Modern  Languages.      By  A.  Marshall 
Elliott,  Calvin  Thomes,  W.    Stuart   Macgowan,   and  others. 
Boston,  U.  S.  A.     1894.     (Essays  and  speeches  very  unequal 
in  value  and  importance.)     ($s.  6d.  cloth.) 

29.  Breymann  (//.).     Die  neusprachliche  Reform- Litteratur  von 
1876 — 93.    Leipzig.     1895.     (3^.  unbound.) 


SPECIAL  BOOKS  ON  THE  TEACHING  OF  GERMAN1. 

30.  Hildebrand  (JR.).     Vom  deutschen   Sprachunterricht   in   der 
Schule.     Leipzig.     4i89o.     (3^.  unbound.) 

31.  Laas  (E.\     Der   deutsche   Unterricht  auf  hoheren   Lehran- 
stalten.      Berlin.      1872.     2i886    (edited    by    I.    Imelmann). 
(8j.  unbound.) 

32.  Lehmann  (Rud.).     Der  deutsche  Unterricht.     Eine  Methodik 
fur  hohere  Lehranstalten.     Berlin.     1890.     (8^.  unbound.) 

33.  Wendt  (Gustav}.     Der  deutsche  Unterricht  und  die  philo- 
sophische  Propadeutik  (from  Baumeister's  'Handbuch'  Vol. 
III.).     Munchen.     1896.     With    useful    bibliographical    lists. 
($s.  unbound.) 

1  Those  books  which  are  specially  intended  for  the  use  of  German 
teachers  in  German  schools  contain  much  more  than  an  English  teacher 
can  possibly  expect  to  get  through;  but  as  the  smaller  is  contained  in  the 
greater,  English  teachers  of  German  will  in  many  cases  find  such  works  of 
the  utmost  service — except  in  the  cases  of  the  special  conditions  and  special 
difficulties  of  the  English  learner.  With  regard  to  these  and  to  the  right 
methods  of  teaching  German  in  English  schools  the  standard  book  has  still 
to  be  written. 


62  Bibliographical  Appendix. 


PHONETICS1. 

34.  Klinghardt  (//".)•     Artikulations-  und  Horiibungen.     Cothen. 
1897.     (55-.  6df.  unbound.) 

35.  Passy  (Paul).     Les  sons  du  Frangais.    Paris.    3i892.    (is.  6d. 
unbound.) 

36.  Victor  (W.\     German   Pronunciation,  Practice  and  Theory. 
Leipzig.     21890.     (zs.  cloth.) 

37.  Breymann  (//".).     Die  Phonetische  Litteratur  von  1876—1895. 
Eine    bibliographisch-kritische    Ubersicht.      Leipzig.      1897. 
(3^.  unbound.) 

1  For  more  detailed  information  see  my  'Handy  Bibliographical  Guide' 
pp.  8,  24 — 26,  and  35,  and  also  pp.  70 — 71  of  this  book.  For  French 
see:  Miinch,  in  his  'Methodik  und  Didaktik  des  franzosischen  Unterrichts,' 
pp.  95 — 96.  Here  the  titles  of  the  important  books  by  Beyer,  Koschwitz, 
and  others  are  given  in  full.  See  also  Miss  Brebner's  pamphlet  (No.  5), 
pp.  70 — 72,  and  Le  maitre  phonttique  (January,  1897),  pp.  39 — 41 
(ouvrages  recommandes  pour  1'etude  de  la  phonetique  et  de  la  pedagogic 
linguistique). 


THE    REFERENCE    LIBRARY   OF   A   SCHOOL 
TEACHER   OF   GERMAN1. 

THERE  are  no  doubt  many  difficulties  which  beset  a  teacher 
of  German  in  this  country,  such  as — want  of  time  allotted  to 
his  subject  in  the  school  curriculum,  necessity  of  preparing  his 
pupils  for  a  host  of  examinations,  want  of  a  clearly  defined 
and  methodically  arranged  curriculum,  lack  of  encouragement 
of  the  subject  in  the  vast  majority  of  schools,  distinct  dis- 
couragement in  the  present  regulations  for  the  army  exami- 
nations, shyness  of  the  pupils  in  dealing  with  the  living  and 
spoken  idiom,  uncertainty  concerning  the  best  method  to  be 
adopted  in  teaching,  and  doubt  as  to  what  books  should  be 
used  with  the  classes,  and  more  especially  in  preparing  for 
his  work. 

It  can,  however,  not  be  urged  that  there  is  not  now  a  great 
number  of  really  good,  scientific,  as  well  as  practical  books 
available  for  a  teacher  to  refer  to  in  all  cases  of  difficulty  and 
doubt,  such  as  may  arise  at  any  moment  in  the  various 
departments  of  his  every-day  teaching.  On  the  contrary,  there 
are,  at  least  in  some  cases,  so  many  books  on  the  same  subject 
that  a  real  difficulty  is  experienced  by  teachers  as  to  which 
should  be  used  by  preference.  The  school  reference-libraries 
are,  as  a  rule,  very  poor  as  far  as  German  is  concerned; 
moreover,  most  teachers  will  probably  wish,  as  far  as  may  be, 

1  Revised  and  enlarged  Reprint  from  the  Modern  Language  Quarterly 
for  November  1897. 


64  The  Reference  Library  of 

to  purchase  gradually  all  the  necessary  books  of  reference  for 
themselves.  The  choice  of  tools  will,  of  course,  largely  depend 
on  the  kind  of  work  which  the  teacher  will  have  to  do,  but  a 
well-equipped  reference  library  will  be  found  by  every  teacher 
of  the  very  greatest  importance  for  the  success  of  his  teaching 
and  for  necessary  self-improvement.  It  is  the  object  of  this 
article  to  assist  younger  teachers  to  some  extent  in  making 
their  choice.  New  books  of  value  and  interest  will  henceforth 
be  regularly  noticed  in  the  Modern  Quarterly  of  Language  and 
Literature.  (London  :  Dent  and  Co.  Single  numbers,  2s.  6d.) 

Such  ordinary  grammars,  composition-books,  school -dic- 
tionaries, and  the  like,  as  are  in  daily  use  in  schools,  and 
with  which  every  teacher  is  naturally  familiar,  have  all,  or 
nearly  all,  been  excluded  from  the  following  lists.  I  shall, 
in  the  subsequent  paragraphs,  freely  refer  readers  to  my 
1  Handy  Guide1,'  where  a  much  greater  number  of  books  of 
reference  is  given. 

Dictionaries. — A  number  of  dictionaries  of  different 
kinds  should  be  found  on  the  shelves  of  a  well-equipped 
reference  library.  Apart  from  the  ordinary  small  school- 
dictionaries,  a  teacher  will  be  in  constant  need  of  at  least 
one  large  dictionary  of  the  first  order.  The  last  edition  of 
Fliigel's  well-known  and  time-honoured  dictionary  is  at  present 
the  largest  English-German  and  German-English  dictionary 
which  is  complete.  Its  full  title  is  Felix  Fliigel,  '  Allgemeines 
Englisch-Deutsches  und  Deutsch-Englisches  Worterbuch.' 
Fourth,  entirely  remodelled,  edition.  2  parts  in  3  vols. 
Braunschweig,  1891.  (Price,  bd.,  £2.  $s.)2  The  English- 

1  Karl  Breul,  'A  Handy  Bibliographical  Guide  to  the  Study  of  the 
German  Language  and  Literature  for  the  use  of  Students  and  Teachers  of 
German.'     London:  Hachette  £  Co.,  1895,  8vo.     Bound,   is.  6d.     Some 
books  enumerated  in  this  article  are  of  more  recent  date  than  the  *  Guide.' 

2  The  prices  quoted  in  this  article  are  those  for  which  the  books  may 
be  obtained  from  Mr  Th.  Wohlleben,  45,  Great  Russell  Street,  London, 
W.C.  (opposite  the  British  Museum).     The  prices  are  liable  to  a  discount 
of  jo°/0  for  foreign  and  25%  for  English  books  to  bona  fide  teachers. 


a  School  Teacher  of  German.  65 

German  part  is  by  far  the  better  of  the  two  ;  the  German- 
English  part,  which  is  really  the  more  important  one  for 
English  students,  leaves  a  good  deal  to  be  desired.  A  smaller 
dictionary,  partly  based  on  the  large  Fliigel  (the  English-German 
part  only),  is  the  one  called  —  Fliigel-Schmidt-Tanger,  'A 
Dictionary  of  the  English  and  German  Languages  for  Home 
and  School.'  Two  vols.  Braunschweig,  1896  (125-.  6d.  bound). 
It  is  excellently  printed,  very  full,  and  most  useful  for  all 
ordinary  purposes. 

A  work  which  will  surpass  in  completeness  even  the  big 
Fliigel  is  now  in  course  of  publication.  It  will  ultimately 
consist  of  four  large  volumes.  The  first  two  volumes,  con- 
taining the  English  and  German  part  (compiled  by  G.  Muret, 
with  the  help  of  many  specialists),  are  completed  (half  bound, 
£2.  2s.).  The  publication  of  the  second  part  has  been  begun 
by  the  Langenscheidt'sche  Buchhandlung,  Berlin,  1897.  The 
editor  of  the  first  number  was  the  late  well-known  lexicographer 
Daniel  Sanders.  The  work  is  being  continued  under  the 
general  editorship  of  Immanuel  Schmidt.  An  abridged  school- 
edition  of  this  work  (in  2  volumes)  is  also  in  course  of 
publication.  Vol.  i.  (the  English-German  part)  has  appeared. 


The  smaller  books  by  Grieb,  Thieme-Preusser,  Kohler 
(all  of  which  have  been,  or  are  being,  completely  re-edited), 
and  the  still  smaller  books  by  Whitney,  Krummacher,  and 
Weir  (of  which  I  am  preparing  a  thoroughly  revised  edition) 
are  certainly  useful  in  many  respects,  but  do  not  always 
afford  all  the  information  a  teacher  of  German  may  desire 
to  obtain. 

Apart  from  German-English  and  English-German  dic- 
tionaries, a  teacher  will  often  desire  to  consult  a  German 
dictionary  with  German  explanations,  and,  if  possible,  with 
well-chosen  German  instances.  The  very  big  works  of  the 
brothers  Grimm  and  their  successors,  and  of  Daniel  Sanders 
(see  my  *  Guide,'  pp.  48-49),  are  too  bulky  and  expensive  for 

B.  <; 


66  The  Reference  Library  of 

ordinary  purposes.  Two  recent  dictionaries  of  smaller  size 
will  probably  be  very  welcome  to  many  teachers  of  German. 
One  is  by  Moriz  Heyne,  'Deutsches  Worterbuch,'  3  vols. 
Leipzig,  1890-95  (;£i.  105.  unbound,  £i.  igs.  half  calf). 
It  contains  numerous  well-chosen  instances,  and  is  most  handy 
for  reference.  An  abridgment  of  it  in  one  vol.  has  recently 
(1897)  been  published  (135.  half  calf).  Another  most  useful 
dictionary,  in  which  no  instances  are  given,  but  the  develop- 
ment of  meaning  of  the  words  very  carefully  elaborated,  is  the 
'Deutsches  Worterbuch/  by  Hermann  Paul.  Halle,  1897  (8s. 
unbd. ;  105.  half  calf).  Both  books  strictly  exclude  all  foreign 
words  of  recent  importation.  Every  teacher  should  endeavour 
to  get  Paul's  dictionary  and  the  large  Heyne — both  will  be  of 
daily  use  to  him.  English  teachers  of  German  will  sometimes 
be  in  doubt  as  to  the  inflexion  or  pronunciation  of  foreign 
words  in  German.  They  will  find  all  desirable  information  in 
the  'Fremdworterbuch,'  by  Daniel  Sanders,  in  2  vols.  Leipzig, 
1871,  2i8<)i-2  (i2S.  unbound,  145.  6d.  half  calf).  There  is 
now,  however,  a  strong  tendency  in  Germany  to  avoid,  if 
possible,  the  use  of  foreign  words,  and  several  dictionaries 
have  been  compiled  in  which  German  equivalents  of  foreign 
words  are  given.  Perhaps  the  best  of  these  is  the  following — 
Hermann  Dunger,  *  Worterbuch  von  Verdeutschungen  ent- 
behrlicher  Fremdworter.'  Leipzig,  1882  (2*.  boards).  A 
short  and  very  interesting  account  of  the  history  of  foreign 
words  in  German  has  been  recently  given  by  Rud.  Kleinpaul, 
under  the  title  'Das  Fremdwort  im  Deutschen,'  Leipzig,  1896. 
(Sammlung  Goeschen  No.  55,  i od.  boards).  Many  teachers  will 
be  glad  of  a  very  complete  and  useful  dictionary  giving  every 
ordinary  modern  German  word,  whether  of  German  or  of 
foreign  origin,  according  to  the  so-called  new  spelling.  One 
of  the  greatest  authorities  on  moderate  spelling  reform, 
Konrad  Duden,  has  compiled  a  '  Vollstandiges  orthographisches 
Worterbuch  der  deutschen  Sprache  mit  etymologischen  An- 
gaben,  kurzen  Sacherklarungen  und  Verdeutschungen  der 


a  School  Teacher  of  German.  67 

Fremdworter.  Nach  den  neuen  amtlichen  Regeln.'  Leipzig, 
4th  ed.,  189-.  (is.  6d).  The  most  handy  dictionary  of  synonyms 
is  Eberhard's  '  Synonymisches  Handworterbuch  der  deutschen 
Sprache'  (the  latest,  i5th  ed.,  by  Otto  Lyon)  with  well-chosen 
German  instances  and  translations  of  the  German  synonyms 
into  English,  French,  Italian,  and  Russian.  Leipzig,  1896 
(half  bound,  135.  6d.}.  The  etymology  of  words  of  German 
origin  has  been  admirably  treated  by  Fr.  Kluge  in  his 
1  Etymologisches  Worterbuch  der  deutschen  Sprache.'  A 
new  enlarged  edition  (the  6th)  is  now  in  course  of  publication 
and  will  be  ready  in  December  (in  8  parts  at  is.  each,  or 
complete,  bound  in  leather,  at  ios.).  A  short,  but  useful, 
etymological  German  dictionary  is  the  one  by  Ferd.  Better. 
Leipzig,  1897.  (Sammlung  Goeschen,  No.  64,  lod.  boards.) 
A  very  good  systematical  English- German  vocabulary  (parts  of 
which  will  be  found  useful  for  class-teaching)  has  been  compiled 
by  Gustav  Krliger,  '  Englisch-Deutsches  Worterbuch  nach 
StorTen  geordnet  fur  Studierende,  Schulen  und  Selbstunterricht.' 
Berlin,  2i895  (4^.).  A  most  useful  and  handy  little  pocket- 
dictionary  for  travelling  purposes  is  the  '  English-German 
Conversation  Dictionary,'  by  Richard  Jaschke.  London,  1893 
(2s.  6d.). 

Many  other  dictionaries,  including  older  German  dic- 
tionaries, special  glossaries,  dialect  dictionaries,  dictionaries 
of  technical  and  commercial  words  and  phrases,  etc.,  which 
are  of  less  importance  for  ordinary  teaching,  must  be  passed 
over  in  this  article.  Their  full  titles  are  given  in  my  '  Guide,' 
chapter  vi.,  pp.  45-54.  I  will  only  mention  F.  W.  Eitzen's 
1  Worterbuch  der  Handelssprache.'  German-English.  Leipzig, 
1893  (us.  6d.  bound),  which  seems  to  be  very  full,  and  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  l  Guide.' 

Grammars,  etc. — Such  books  as  are  very  widely  known 
and  extensively  used  in  class-teaching,  e.g.,  the  grammars  by 
Kuno  Meyer,  Macgowan,  Fiedler,  Aue,  Eve,  Weisse,  Baumann, 
Meissner,  Siepmann,  and  others,  need  not  be  discussed  here. 

5—2 


68  The  Reference  Library  of 

I  wish  to  call  attention  to  some  books  which  seem  to  be  less 
known,  and  which,  if  consulted,  would  often  be  found  very 
helpful.  Among  the  smaller  grammars  of  German  for  English 
students  there  is  the  American  book  by  H.  C.  G.  Brandt,  'A 
Grammar  of  the  German  language  for  High  Schools  and 
Colleges,  designed  for  beginners  and  advanced  students.'  Sixth 
ed.  Boston,  1893  (6.r.  net,  cloth),  which  is  far  too  little  known 
in  this  country,  and  will  be  found  extremely  useful  on  account 
of  its  brief  but  accurate  explanations  of  grammatical  pheno- 
mena. The  small  but  practical  '  Deutsche  Grammatik  und 
Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache '  by  Otto  Lyon.  Stuttgart, 
2 1 89 2  (Sammlung  Goeschen,  No.  20,  \vd.  boards),  will  be 
found  useful  in  many  cases  where  brief  and  reliable  information 
is  wanted.  Among  the  more  bulky  works  on  German  grammar, 
written  in  German  and  intended  for  teachers  and  students,  the 
following  deserves  special  recommendation :  F.  Blatz,  '  Neu- 
hochdeutsche  Grammatik  mit  Beriicksichtigung  der  historischen 
Entwickelung  der  deutschen  Sprache.'  Third  ed.,  entirely 
rewritten  in  two  vols.  Karlsruhe,  1895-6  (unbound,  22^., 
half  bound,  26^.).  This  is  a  most  useful  book  for  study  and 
for  reference.  Of  the  older  books,  I.  Ch.  Aug.  Heyse's 
1  Deutsche  Grammatik,'  25th  ed.,  completely  rewritten  by 
Otto  Lyon.  Hannover,  1893  (5^.),  may,  in  spite  of  some 
shortcomings,  still  be  used  with  advantage  in  many  cases. 
The  ' Deutsche  Grammatik'  (Gotisch,  Alt-  Mittel-  und  Neu- 
hochdeutsch),  by  W.  Wilmanns,  which  is  now  in  course  of 
publication,  will  probably  be  of  too  strictly  philological  a 
character  to  meet  the  practical  needs  of  most  teachers.  So 
far  vol.  I.  (phonology),  Strassburg,  1893  (8s.  unbound,  los. 
half  bound),  and  vol.  n.  (word-formation),  Strassburg,  1896 
(i2s.  6d.  unbound,  15^.  half  bound),  have  appeared.  Two, 
or  possibly  three,  more  volumes  are  to  follow.  It  is  an 
admirable  piece  of  work. 

An  excellent  short  book  for  repetition  of  the  principal  facts 
of  old  and  modern  phonology  and  accidence  is  Fr.  KaufTmann, 


a  School  Teacher  of  German.  69 

'  Deutsche  Grammatik.'  Marburg,  second  edition,  1895  (25.  6d. 
cloth).  The  book  is  only  for  teachers  and  students,  it  cannot 
be  used  for  class-teaching. 

With  regard  to  syntax  alone,  the  works  by  Vernaleken, 
Erdmann,  Kern,  and  Wunderlich,  give  much  useful  infor- 
mation. (See  my  '  Guide,'  p.  32.)  Erdmann's  work  (in  two 
volumes),  which  is  now  completed  (vol.  n.  by  Otto  Mensing, 
Stuttgart,  1898),  deserves  special  recommendation.  (135-.  un- 
bound.) 

There  are  a  number  of  German  books  in  which  doubtful 
points  of  grammar  and  the  'best  German'  are  discussed  at 
length.  Three  of  these  will  be  especially  serviceable  to 
English  teachers  (for  others,  see  my  '  Guide/  pp.  29-30). 
K.  G.  Andresen,  *  Sprachgebrauch  und  Sprachrichtigkeit  im 
Deutschen.'  Seventh  edition,  Leipzig,  1892  (6s.  or  cloth  7^.). 
This  is  the  most  conservative  book  of  the  three.  Th.  Matthias, 
in  his  'Sprachleben  und  Sprachschaden.'  Leipzig,  1892  (6s. 
cloth),  of  which  an  abridged  edition  has  recently  been  pub- 
lished, is  inclined  to  make  greater  concessions  to  recent 
usage.  Both  books  are  well  indexed.  The  third  book  is  much 
shorter,  but  also  very  useful — A.  Heintze,  '  Gut  Deutsch.'  Sixth 
edition,  Berlin,  1895  (is.  6d.  cloth).  These  books  will  often  be 
found  useful  in  cases  where  the  ordinary  school-grammars  do 
not  give  sufficient  information.  Wustmann's  often  quoted 
1  Sprachdummheiten '  should  only  be  used  with  the  very  greatest 
caution. 

Teachers  who  are  anxious  to  have  a  brief  survey  of  the 
history  of  the  German  language  should  refer  to  the  following 
books — O.  Weise,  'Unsere  Muttersprache;  ihr  Werden  und  ihr 
Wesen.'  Third  ed.,  Leipzig,  1895  (2$.  6d.  cloth).  An  English 
translation  of  this  work  which,  in  spite  of  a  number  of 
minor  mistakes,  is  useful  and  suggestive,  is  being  prepared  in 
America.  A  somewhat  older  book  of  a  similar  character  and 
more  reliable  with  regard  to  strictly  philological  information  is 
O.  Behaghel,  'Die  deutsche  Sprache,'  Leipzig,  1886  (15-.),  an 


/O  The  Reference  Library  of 

English  adaptation  of  which,  by  E.  Trechmann,  was  published 
in  London,  1891,  under  the  title,  'A  Short  Historical  Grammar 
of  the  German  Language.'  (45.  6d.}  A  small  pamphlet  con- 
taining a  few  short  and  popular  articles  on  the  German 
language,  such  as  boys  preparing  for  scholarships  may  like 
to  read,  is  the  one  by  E.  Wasserzieher,  '  Aus  dem  Leben  der 
deutschen  Sprache.'  Leipzig,  no  date  (3^.).  A.  W.  F.  Cerf 
has  begun  a  '  Short  Historical  Grammar  of  the  German  Lan- 
guage' (Part  I.  :  Introduction  and  Phonology.  London,  1894. 
45.),  the  second  part  of  which  has  not  yet  appeared.  A 
somewhat  larger  book  is  the  one  by  Henri  Lichtenberger, 
'Histoire  de  la  langue  allemande,'  Paris,  1895  (&s.  6d.}. 
Another  useful  French  book,  treating  of  the  mutual  relation 
of  English  and  German  grammar,  is  a  book  by  V.  Henry, 
which  was  translated  by  the  author  himself,  under  the  title, 
'A  Short  Comparative  Grammar  of  English  and  German,  as 
traced  back  to  their  Common  Origin  and  contrasted  with  the 
Classical  Languages.'  London,  1894  (js.  6d.}.  All  desirable 
information  with  regard  to  the  new  spelling  is  given  by 
W.  Wilmanns  in  his  valuable  book,  '  Die  Orthographic  in  den 
Schulen  Deutschlands.'  Berlin,  1887  (35.  6d.  unbound).  A 
short  guide  to  modern  punctuation  is  the  book  by  O.  Glode, 
'Die  deutsche  Interpunktionslehre.'  Leipzig,  1893  (6d.}. 
Teachers  who  have  to  prepare  boys  for  examinations  in  which 
they  must  shew  proficiency  in  reading  German  handwriting 
should  use  C.  F.  A.  Kolb,  'Lesebuch  in  Handschriften.'  8th  ed. 
Stuttgart,  1895  (is.  $d.  boards),  or  B.  Levy,  '  Recueil  de  lettres 
allemandes  reproduites  en  ecritures  autographiques  pour  exercer 
a  la  lecture  des  manuscrits  allemands.'  Paris.  Sixth  edition, 
1892  (25.  8d.).  The  subject  of  the  best  German  pronunciation 
is  still  a  very  vexed  question,  even  among  the  Germans  them- 
selves. I  do  not  propose  to  treat  it  in  full  in  the  present 
article,  still  I  should  like  to  refer  teachers  to  the  various  books 
by  W.  Victor  (see  my  '  Guide,'  pp.  35,  47).  Those  which  will 
be  most  helpful  for  English  teachers  are  his  '  German  Pronun- 


a  School  Teacher  of  German.  71 

ciation :  Practice  and  Theory.'  Leipzig,  1890  (2^.),  and  the 
reprint  of  his  lecture,  '  Wie  ist  die  Aussprache  des  Deutschen 
zu  lehren?'  Marburg,  1893  (is.).  A  < Deutsche  Lauttafel/ 
illustrating  this  lecture,  was  published  at  the  same  time  (is.  6d.). 
The  same  can  be  had  on  a  large  scale  and  mounted  to  be  hung 
up  on  the  wall  of  the  class  room  (2^.  6d.).  Teachers  who  are 
anxious  to  consult  handy  books  on  phonetics  may  refer  either 
to  Laura  Soames,  lAn  Introduction  to  Phonetics/  London, 

1891  (2S.   6d.)j   which  is   now  out  of  print,  to  some  extent 
replaced  by  Soames'  '  Phonetic  Method.'     Part  I.:  'Sounds  of 
English.'     (2s.  6d.)     Part  II. :    'The  Teacher's   Method  with 
Word-lists'  (25-.  6d.) ;  or  to  W.  Victor's  '  Elemente  der  Phonetik 
und  Orthoepie  des  Deutschen,  Englischen  und  Franzosischen, 
mit  Riicksicht  auf  die  Bediirfnisse  der  Lehrpraxis.'    Leipzig. 
Third  edition  (with  useful  bibliography),  1894  ('js.  unbound, 
8s.  cloth).     An  abridged  edition  of  this  work  has  just  been 
issued.     Leipzig,  1897   (35.).     It  is  called  'Kleine  Phonetik 
des  Deutschen,  Englischen  und  Franzosischen '  (3^.  6d.  cloth). 
An  English  translation  and  adaptation  of  it  is  being  prepared 
by  W.  Rippmann.    London,  Dent. 

There  are  several  books  devoted  to  the  teaching  of  conver- 
sation (see  my  '  Guide,'  p.  38).  Perhaps  the  most  serviceable 
of  them  is  A.  Hamann's  '  Echo  of  Spoken  German.'  Leipzig, 

1892  (2^-.   6d.   cloth),  a  series   of  excellent   dialogues   which 
afford,  at  the  same  time,  a  useful  introduction  to  the  study  of 
German  life  and  manners. 

For  the  explanation  of  German  idiomatic  phrases,  no  better 
books  could  be  desired  than  those  by  Wilh.  Borchardt,  'Die 
sprichwortlichen  Redensarten  im  deutschen  Volksmund  nach 
Sinn  und  Ursprung  erlautert.'  Leipzig.  Fourth  ed.,  1894 
(>js.  cloth),  and  by  H.  Schrader,  '  Der  Bilderschrnuck  der 
deutschen  Sprache.'  Berlin.  Second  edition,  1889  (7^.  cloth). 
For  other  similar  books,  familiar  quotations,  slang,  etc.,  see  my 
'  Guide/  p.  39. 

Teachers  who  make  their  advanced  pupils  write  free  essays 


72  The  Reference  Library  of 

on  German  classical  works  or  characters  occurring  in  great  plays 
should  use  among  others  the  books  of  Victor  Kiy,  l  Themata 
und  Dispositionen  zu  deutschen  Aufsatzen  und  Vortragen  im 
Anschluss  an  die  deutsche  Schullektiire  fiir  die  oberen  Klassen 
hoherer  Lehranstalten.'  Three  parts.  Berlin,  1895-1897.  (Parts 
I.  and  III.  35.,  Part  II.  3*.  6d.  cloth.) 

Histories  of  Literature. — There  is  not  as  yet  a  really 
satisfactory  History  of  German  Literature  written  in  English 
and  based  on  a  first-hand  acquaintance  of  the  author  with  the 
German  works  of  literature  of  old  and  modern  times.  The 
English  translations  and  adaptations  of  German  works  are 
none  of  them  free  from  very  serious  shortcomings.  Hence  a 
teacher  will  very  likely  prefer  to  possess  one  or  more  German 
works  of  moderate  size  on  the  subject.  The  following  will,  in 
my  opinion,  best  serve  his  purpose — Wilhelm  Scherer,  l  Ge- 
schichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur.'  Berlin,  ;th  ed.,  1895  (IQJ. 
cloth,  i2s.  half  bound),  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  book  of  its 
kind,  written  by  a  ripe  scholar,  who  was  endowed  with  a  refined 
taste  for  literary  beauty.  A  new  edition  (apparently  unaltered) 
is  just  being  issued  in  parts  at  is.  each.  A  book  of  similar 
compass  is  that  by  the  late  poet  and  professor  Otto  Roquette, 
4  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Dichtung  von  den  altesten  Denk- 
malern  bis  auf  die  Neuzeit.'  Frankfurt-on-the-Main.  3rd  ed., 
1882  (*js.  6d.  unbound).  The  last  book  of  this  kind  deserving 
warm  recommendation  has  only  quite  recently  appeared.  It  is 
the  *  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur  von  den  altesten  Zeiten 
bis  zur  Gegenwart,'  by  Friedrich  Vogt  and  Max  Koch. 
Leipzig  and  Wien,  1897  (bound,  16^.).  This  book  is  pro- 
fusely illustrated  with  very  carefully  selected  and  splendidly 
executed  illustrations,  giving  facsimiles  of  old  and  modern 
manuscripts  and  handwritings,  and  numerous  portraits  of 
famous  authors,  etc.  The  scientific  value  of  this  book  is 
incomparably  higher  than  that  of  another  well-illustrated  history 
of  literature  by  Robert  Konig  (25th  revised  ed.  in  two  vols. 
Bielefeld  and  Leipzig,  1895  (£i  half  bound),  which  has  had 


a  School  Teacher  of  German.  73 

a  wide  circulation  in  Germany.  A  fine  and  suggestive  book 
giving  a  full  account  of  the  development  of  German  literature 
as  influenced  by  social  forces  hails  from  America.  It  is 
called  '  Social  forces  in  German  literature.  A  study  in  the 
history  of  Civilization'  by  Kuno  Francke.  New  York,  2i897. 
(los.  cloth.)  A  splendid  work,  merely  illustrating  German  "• 
literature  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present  day  by  over 
2200  pictures  and  illustrations,  is  Gust.  Koennecke's  'Bilder- 
atlas  zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Nationallitteratur.  Er- 
ganzung  zu  jeder  deutschen  Litteraturgeschichte.'  2nd  ed. 
Marburg,  1895  (£i.  8^.  half  calf).  For  the  eighteenth 
century  the  great  work  by  H.  Hettner,  'Geschichte  der 
deutschen  Litteratur  im  achtzehnten  Jahrhundert/  4th  ed. 
(revised  by  O.  Harnack),  Braunschweig,  1894  (;£i.  15^.  6d. 
unbound,  or  bound  in  2  vols.  (leather)  £i.  19.$*.  6^.),  will  be 
found  as  useful  as  it  is  interesting. 

There  are  several  books  from  which  information  as  to  y  M 
German  literature  in  our  own  century  can  be  obtained.  It 
is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  they  differ  a  great  deal  in 
character  and  judgment,  but  in  all  of  them  there  is  plenty  of 
interesting  matter  and  valuable  information.  The  following 
may  be  mentioned  in  the  first  instance — R.  v.  Gottschall,  'Die 
deutsche  Nationallitteratur  des  neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts. 
Litterarhistorisch  und  kritisch  dargestellt,'  6th  ed.,  4  parts. 
Breslau,  1892  (£i  unbound).  Fr.  Kirchner,  '  Die  deutsche 
Nationallitteratur  des  neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts/  Heidelberg, 
1894  (js.  6d.  unbound,  los.  half  calf).  L.  Salomon,  'Ge- 
schichte der  deutschen  Nationallitteratur  des  neunzehnten 
Jahrhunderts/  2nd  ed.  (with  thirty  portraits  of  poets).  Stuttgart, 
1887  (i2s.  cloth).  Ad.  Stern,  'Studien  zur  Litteratur  der 
Gegenwart '  (with  portraits  of  authors).  Dresden  and  Leipzig, 
2 1898  (los.  6d.  unbound,  I2S.  6d.  cloth).  A  short  and  somewhat 
one-sided  work  is  the  '  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur  in 
der  Gegenwart,'  by  Eugen  Wolff.  Leipzig,  1896  (6s.  6d.  cloth). 
In  many  ways  preferable  is  the  still  shorter  book  by  A.  Bartels,  -- 


74  The  Reference  Library  of 

(  Die  deutsche  Dichtung  der  Gegenwart.'  Leipzig,  1897  (2^. 
boards).  The  short  account  of  nineteenth  century  literature 
by  Adolf  Stern,  '  Die  deutsche  National-litteratur  vom  Tode 
Goethes  bis  zur  Gegenwart '  (originally  intended  to  form  a 
supplement  to  Vilmar's  *  History  of  German  Literature'), 
Marburg,  2i89o,  is  also  not  without  value  (25.  $d.  cloth). 
The  modern  German  drama  has  been  treated  with  much 
interest  by  Berthold  Litzmann.  Hamburg  and  Leipzig, 
2i894  (55-.).  From  a  great  number  of  German  primers  of 
literature  for  schools  only  those  by  H.  Kluge,  G.  Egelhaaf, 
Max  Koch,  G.  Botticher  and  K.  Kinzel,  and  Gotthold  Klee 
(Dresden  and  Berlin,  2nd  ed.  1897)  need  be  mentioned.  See 
my  ' Guide/  pp.  63-64.  Each  has  its  own  advantages.  Klee's 
book  (2s.  cloth)  is  perhaps  the  best  for  school  purposes.  Brief 
and  reliable  information  concerning  all  living  modern  German 
authors  (not  only  poets,  but  men  of  letters  generally),  authors' 
societies,  periodicals  and  newspapers,  etc.  is  given  in  Joseph 
Kiirschner's  annual  publication  (somewhat  corresponding  to 
our  *  Who's  who')  called  'Deutscher  Litteratur-Kalender.'  The 
2oth  volume  appeared  at  Leipzig,  1898  (bound,  6s.  6d.}. 

Metre. — A  short  but  useful  survey  of  the  history  of  German 
metre,  with  good  specimens  and  due  consideration  of  modern 
forms,  is  given  by  Fr.  Kauffmann  in  his  *  Deutsche  Metrik  nach 
ihrer  geschichtlichen  Entwickelung.'  Marburg,  1897  (4^.  6d.). 
A  more  detailed  account  of  modern  German  metre — a  subject 
which  apparently  is  hardly  ever  touched  upon  in  school  teaching, 
while  the  outlines  of  it  deserve  to  be  just  as  well  known  as 
the  metrical  art  of  the  ancient  classical  writers— is  given  in 
F.  Minor's  ' Neuhochdeutsche  Metrik.'  Strassburg,  1893  (ics. 
unbound ;  T  2s.  half  calf).  Most  teachers  will  probably  find 
the  book  too  elaborate  for  their  purpose  in  spite  of  its  being 
extremely  readable  and  suggestive.  The  metre  of  a  play  in 
blank  verse  and  in  the  Old  German  free  metre  of  four  accents 
is  fully  discussed  in  my  edition  of  Schiller's  '  Wallenstein  i. 
Cambridge,  2i896  (3*.  6d.  cloth);  blank  verse  alone  in  my 


a  School  Teacher  of  German.  75 


edition  of  '  Wilhelm  Tell.'  Cambridge,  2 1897  (25.  6d.)>  and  in 
my  forthcoming  edition  of  Goethe's  '  Iphigenie.' 

Theory  of  Poetry,  etc. — A  number  of 'Poetiken'  of  very 
different  size  and  character  are  enumerated  in  my  ' Guide'  on 
pp.  74-75.  There  will  be  little  time,  and  perhaps  little  need, 
for  systematic  instruction  in  our  school  teaching,  but  teachers 
will  probably  like  to  possess  and  use  at  least  the  following  two 
small  and  cheap  hand-books :  C.  F.  A.  Schuster,  *  Lehrbuch 
der  Poetik  fur  hohere  Lehranstalten.'  Halle,  3rd  ed.  1890 
(2s.  cloth),  and  the  still  smaller  '  Deutsche  Poetik'  by  Karl 
Borinski.  Stuttgart,  1895  (lod.  cloth).  In  this  connection  I 
should  like  to  mention  and  to  recommend  very  strongly  three 
books  which  teachers  will  find  helpful  in  discussing  German 
dramas  with  more  advanced  pupils,  or  in  preparing  for  scholar- 
ship examinations  :  Gustav  Freytag,  'Die  Technik  des  Dramas/ 
4th  ed.  Leipzig,  1881  ($s.  unbound,  6s.  6d.  bound).  The 
American  translation  of  this  book  by  E.  J.  Mac  Ewan,  Chicago, 
1895  (js.  6d.  cloth),  does  not  seem  to  be  very  well  done. 
R.  Franz,  'Der  Aufbau  der  Handlung  in  den  klassischen 
Dramen.'  Bielefeld  and  Leipzig,  1892  (4^.  6d.  unbound,  6s. 
half  bound),  and  H.  Bulthaupt,  '  Dramaturgic  des  Schauspiels.' 
Vol.  i.  (Lessing,  Goethe,  Schiller,  Kleist).  Oldenburg  and 
Leipzig,  5th  ed.,  1893  (6^.  cloth). 

German  Classics. — A  great  number  of  school  editions  of 
German  classics  with  English,  German,  and  French  Notes  are 
enumerated  in  my  '  Guide,'  pp.  94-96.  For  particulars  as  to 
English  editions  of  German  Classics  available  in  1893  see  my 
article  in  Lyon's  'Zeitschrift  fiir  den  deutschen  Unterricht,' 
Vol.  VIIT.  (1894),  pp.  167  sqq.  Of  English  editions  without 
notes  Max  Miiller's  '  German  Classics '  in  2  vols.,  Oxford, 
1886  (;£i.  is.),  deserves  to  be  mentioned.  Professor  Schiid- 
dekopf  is  preparing  a  comprehensive  modern  anthology ;  and 
I  am  preparing  a  selection  of  the  best  and  most  characteristic 
of  Goethe's  collected  works  in  one  volume  for  the  Clarendon 
Press.  Of  German  editions  :  the  Hempel  editions  of  Lessing, 


76  The  Reference  Library  of 

Goethe  and  Schiller,  the  new  Schiller  edition  by  Bellerman  for 
the  Leipzig  Bibliographical  Institute,  the  editions  of  Burger, 
Uhland,  Riickert,  Heine  (in  7  volumes)  and  others  by  the  same 
publishers,  and  most  of  the  volumes  of  Kiirschner's  '  Deutsche 
National- Litteratur'  and  of  Brockhaus"  Bibliothek  der  deutschen 
Nationallitteratur  des  achtzehnten  und  neunzehnten  Jahr- 
hunderts,'  deserve  to  be  recommended.  Of  the  cheap  series 
the  volumes  of  Cotta's  '  Bibliothek  der  Weltlitteratur '  (bound), 
and  those  of  the  '  Collection  Spemann '  (bound),  uniformly 
printed  in  excellent  type  on  excellent  paper,  can  be  had  for  is. 
each;  the  Hendel  editions  (Halle,  unbound)  for  $d.  per 
volume;  Reclam's  texts,  '  Universal  Bibliothek'  (Leipzig),  3^. 
per  volume ;  and  the  texts  of  the  series  called  '  Meyer's 
Volksbiicher'  (Leipzig)  for  2d.  per  volume. 

Some  other  excellent  sets  of  classics  of  a  more  scientific 
character  are  enumerated  in  my  'Guide'  on  pp.  81-82,  and  a 
number  of  commentaries  mentioned  on  pp.  100-104.  English 
teachers  of  German  will  find  M.  W.  Gotzinger's  'Deutsche 
Dichter,'  5th  ed.  (partly  rewritten  by  E.  Gotzinger),  2  vols. 
Aarau,  1876-7  (iSs.  unbound,  and  ;£i  cloth),  very  useful. 

Old  German. — Few  teachers  will  feel  inclined  to  give 
much  time  and  attention  to  Old  German,  and  will  therefore 
hardly  be  in  need  of  advice  as  to  what  books  to  use  for  the 
study  of  the  older  German  classics.  Still  many  teachers  may 
in  a  not  very  distant  future  wish  to  prepare  boys  for  scholar- 
ships at  the  Universities,  and  although  Old  German  is  with 
very  good  reason  no  longer  an  indispensable  condition  for 
success  in  an  Entrance  Scholarship,  a  teacher  may  occasionally 
like  to  give  promising  pupils  a  start  and  teach  them  the 
elements  of  Middle  High  German  and  sixteenth  century 
German1.  Some  teachers  may  also  like  to  continue  their  own 
reading  and  extend  their  knowledge  of  Older  German  literature. 

I  shall  not,  in  the  following  list  of  books,  include  any  works 

1  On  the  whole  question  see  The  Educational  Times  of  May  i,  1894. 


a  School  Teacher  of  German.  77 

of  an  advanced  character,  being  strongly  of  opinion  that  Old 
German  as  such  is  not  a  school  subject,  and  should  not,  unless 
in  very  exceptional  cases,  be  begun  before  the  University 
course.  Moreover,  a  smattering  of  Old  German  and  German 
philology,  if  not  very  well  and  carefully  taught  by  an  ex- 
perienced teacher,  is  sure  to  do  far  more  harm  than  good. 

The  basis  of  the  modern  literary  language  is  sixteenth 
century  German.  A  teacher  might  first  use  Raphael  Meyer's 
'  Einflihrung  in  das  altere  Neuhochdeutsche.'  Leipzig,  1894 
(2.$-.),  in  which  the  first  fifty-five  stanzas  of  the  poem  of  '  Huernen 
Seyfrid;  are  commented  on,  and  then  proceed  to  reading  some 
of  the  small  volumes  in  'Goeschen's'  or  'Botticher  and  KinzelV 
sets  (see  'Guide,'  pp.  79-80).  In  the  'Sammlung  Goeschen,' 
Vol.  xxiv.  might  be  selected  for  this  purpose.  It  contains  a 
selection  (by  L.  Pariser)  of  passages  from  '  Seb.  Brant,  Luther, 
Hans  Sachs  and  Fischart.'  Stuttgart,  1893  (lod.  cloth).  In 
'  Botticher  and  Kinzel's '  '  Denkmaler  der  alteren  deutschen 
Litteratur,'  the  volumes  'Hans  Sachs'  (by  K.  Kinzel).  Halle, 
1893  (is.  unbound),  and  '  Kunst-  und  Volkslied  in  der  Re- 
formationszeit '  (by  K.  Kinzel).  Halle,  1892  (is.  unbound), 
will  be  found  useful. 

If  teachers  should  desire  to  give  their  pupils  some  specimens 
of  the  actual  text  of  Luther's  first  translation  of  the  Bible 
('Septemberbibel')  and  briefly  to  discuss  the  principal  changes 
from  sixteenth  to  nineteenth  century  German  they  cannot  do 
better  than  use  the  excellent  and  handy  book  by  A.  Reiffer- 
scheid,  '  Marcus  Evangelion  Martin  Luthers  nach  der  Sep- 
temberbibel,  mit  den  Lesarten  aller  Originalausgaben,  etc.' 
Heilbronn,  1888  (4^.  6d.  unbound).  For  other  sixteenth 
century  texts  nothing  can  be  better  than  Braune's  cheap  and 
reliable  '  Neudrucke.'  (See  '  Guide,'  p.  81.) 

The  best  introduction  to  the  study  of  Middle  High 
German  is  Jul.  Zupitza's  '  Einfiihrung  in  das  Studium  des 
Mittelhochdeutschen.'  Oppeln,  1868.  4th  ed.,  1891  (2^.  6d. 
unbound,  3^.  cloth).  Many  scholars  have  been  first  initiated 


78  The  Reference  Library  of 

into  a  serious  study  of  Middle  High  German  by  this  most 
excellent  little  book.  After  having  gone  through  Zupitza's 
introduction,  teachers  might  rapidly  read  through  Jos.  Wright's 
<  Middle  High  German  Primer.'  Oxford,  1888  (>.  6d.\  and 
then  study  Hartman  von  Ouwe's  '  Der  arme  Heinrich '  in 
J.  G.  Robertson's  edition.  London,  1895  (4^.  6d.),  or 
W.  Golther's  selections  from  *  Der  Nibelunge  Not '  (Sammlung 
Goeschen,  ioa).  Stuttgart,  1895  (lod.  cloth),  or  some  other 
volumes  from  Goeschen's  series.  English  editions  of  the 
Nibelungenlied  and  of  a  selection  from  the  Minnesinger  are 
being  prepared  by  Professor  Fiedler.  The  small  Middle  High 
German  grammar  by  H.  Paul  (Halle,  3i889,  $s.  6d.\  and  the 
small  dictionary  by  M.  Lexer  (Leipzig,  3i885,  6s.),  are  much 
to  be  recommended. 

Mythology,  Sagas. — A  teacher  who  is  desirous  of  ob- 
taining a  rapid  survey  of  German  Mythology  and  'Heldensage' 
without  being  able  to  devote  much  time  to  the  study  of  the 
more  comprehensive  books  might  read  two  handy  volumes 
(lod.  each)  of  the  very  useful  *  Sammlung  Goeschen.'  The 
one  on  *  Deutsche  Mythologie'  is  by  Fr.  Kauffmann.  2nd  ed. 
Stuttgart,  1893;  the  booklet  on  '  Die  deutsche  Heldensage' 
is  by  O.  L.  Jiriczek.  Stuttgart,  1894.  The  larger  books 
on  those  subjects  are  enumerated  in  my  ' Guide'  on  pp. 
110-112.  To  these  should  now  be  added  W.  Golther, 
'Handbuch  der  germanischen  Mythologie.'  Leipzig,  1895 
(125.  unbound,  145.  half  calf). 

History  and  Geography. — Although  German  history 
and  geography  as  such  will  hardly  ever  be  taught  in  ordinary 
schools,  a  teacher  of  German  should  make  it  a  point  to  be 
well  informed  as  to  either  subject,  and  should  possess  German 
books  with  German  names  of  places  and  events  in  his  private 
library.  The  histories  and  atlases  of  this  kind  need  not  be 
very  bulky  and  expensive;  some  really  good  German  school 
and  family  books  will  amply  suffice  for  his  purpose.  There 
are  a  good  many  works  which  would  do  very  well,  but  German 


a  School  Teacher  of  German.  79 

books  on  German  Realien  do  not  seem  to  be  as  yet  very 
familiar  to  English  teachers  of  German1.  A  book  on  Germany 
similar  to  Wendt's  *  England '  has  still  to  be  written — a  very 
useful  but  by  no  means  an  easy  task.  I  can  recommend 
the  following  :  David  Miiller,  '  Leitfaden  zur  Geschichte  des 
deutschen  Volkes.'  loth  ed.  Berlin,  1897,  2s.  6d.  cloth.  A 
larger  book  by  the  same  author  is  called  '  Geschichte  des 
deutschen  Volkes  in  kurzgefasster  iibersichtlicher  Darstellung.' 
i5th  ed.  Berlin,  1894  (bound  6s.).  The  *  Deutsche  Ge- 
schichte '  by  Kammel  is  also  largely  used  in  Germany.  Some 
consider  it  to  be  now  the  best  work  of  its  kind  (Ss.).  A  shorter 
work  by  Otto  Kammel  also  deserves  to  be  recommended.  It 
is  called  'Der  Werdegang  des  deutschen  Volkes.  Historische 
Richtlinien  fur  gebildete  Leser.'  Vol.  i.  Das  Mittelalter. 
Leipzig,  1896  (2S.  6d.  cloth).  Vol.  n.  Die  Neuzeit.  Leipzig. 
1898  (3$.  cfoth).  K.  Biedermann's  Deutsche  Volks-  und 
Kulturgeschichte  fiir  Schule  und  Haus.  3  Parts  in  i  Volume. 
Wiesbaden,  2i89i  (75.  6d.  cloth),  is  much  to  be  recom- 
mended. Teachers  may  also  like  to  read  through  J.  Jastrow's 
interesting  book  called  '  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Einheits- 
traumes  und  seiner  Erfiillung.'  Berlin,  4i89i  (6s.  unbound, 
75-.  half  bound).  A  most  excellent  *  Atlas  fiir  Mittel- 
und  Oberklassen  hoherer  Lehranstalten '  was  published  this 
year  at  Bielefeld  and  Leipzig  under  the  editorship  of 
R.  Lehmann  and  W.  Petzold  (5^.)-  Teachers  of  German  will 
find  it  extremely  useful.  The  small  Atlas  by  E.  Debes 
'Schulatlas  fiir  die  mittlere  Unterrichtsstufe/  Leipzig  (is.  6d.}, 
deserves  to  be  mentioned  in  this  connection,  and  will  suffice 
for  ordinary  purposes.  A  useful  little  book  is  also  A.  L.  Hick- 
mann,  '  Geographisch-statistischer  Taschen-Atlas  des  deutschen 
Reiches.'  3  Parts.  Leipzig-Wien  (2$.  each  part  cloth, 

1  In  Germany  an  acquaintance  with  the  principal  English  and  French 
Realien  is  required  by  the  present  regulations  of  the  Oberlehrerprufung^ 
and  new  regulations  which  will  be  published  within  a  few  weeks  are  said 
to  go  still  further  in  this  direction. 


8o  The  Reference  Library  of 

or  the  three  in  one  volume,  3^.  cloth).  Very  cheap  and 
useful  for  class  teaching  is  P.  Knotel's  '  Bilderatlas  zur 
deutschen  Geschichte'  (with  explanatory  notes).  Bielefeld 
and  Leipzig,  1895  (3s-)-  A  number  of  valuable  and  interesting 
books  on  German  History  and  on  German  Life  and  Customs 
are  enumerated  in  my  '  Guide'  on  pp.  116  sqq.  Concerning 
the  rights  and  duties  of  German  citizens  teachers  will  find 
reliable  information  in  the  book  by  A.  Giese,  *  Die  deutsche 
Biirgerkunde.'  Leipzig,  1894  (is.  3^.),  and  in  G.  Hoffmann 
and  E.  Groth,  f  Deutsche  Biirgerkunde.  Kleines  Handbuch  des 
politisch  Wissenswertesten  fur  jedermann.'  Leipzig  (2^.  bound). 

General  Information. — Succinct  and  reliable  informa- 
tion on  all  matters  connected  with  German  history  and 
biography,  life  and  thought,  may  be  obtained  from  Meyer's 
'  Kleines  Konversations-Lexikon '  in  3  volumes.  5th  ed. 
Leipzig,  1893  (half  bound,  £i.  4^.),  which  will  prove  of  the 
greatest  use  in  many  questions,  and  which  every  teacher  of 
German  should  endeavour  to  get.  The  6th  edition  is  just 
being  published  in  parts.  A  very  concise  book  giving  brief 
information  concerning  German  affairs,  institutions,  customs 
etc.  is  J.  Kiirschner's  Jahrbuch.  Berlin-Leipzig-Eisenach,  1898. 
(is.  unbound).  Some  good  English  books  on  Germany  are 
W.  H.  Dawson,  '  Germany  and  the  Germans.'  London, 
1894,  2  vols.  (26^.),  and  S.  Whitman,  'Imperial  Germany.7 
London,  1889  (new  ed.  1895,  2s.  6d.}.  An  interesting  book, 
written  from  the  French  point  of  view  by  a  man  of  culture 
and  broad  views,  is  '  Les  Allemands '  by  Le  Pere  Didon. 
Paris,  1884  (6s.  unbound). 

Method  of  Teaching. — However  well  informed  a  teacher 
may  be,  he  will  have  to  adapt  himself  in  his  teaching  to  the 
school  curriculum,  to  the  aims  to  be  attained  by  his  pupils, 
and  he  will  have  to  give  his  most  serious  attention  to  the 
study  and  consideration  of  the  methods  to  be  followed  in  his 
teaching.  No  school  teacher  who  takes  the  slightest  interest 
in  his  subject  can  at  the  present  time  afford  to  keep  aloof 


a  School  Teacher  of  German.  Si 

from  the  discussions  as  to  the  best  method  of  teaching 
modern  foreign  languages,  and  every  one  will  be  able  to  learn 
a  great  deal  from  the  books  written  on  the  subject  of  the 
teaching  of  German.  A  number  of  the  most  suggestive  books 
have  been  enumerated  on  pp.  58-62  of  this  book.  Some  of 
these  works  a  Modern  Language  teacher  will  no  doubt  wish  to 
possess  for  himself,  so  as  to  be  able  to  refer  to  them  from  time 
to  time  as  occasion  arises.  The  following  books  appear  to 
me  to  be  especially  useful — W.  H.  Widgery,  '  The  teaching  of 
languages  in  schools.'  London,  1888  (2^.),  is  now  out  of  print, 
but  a  reprint  would  be  very  desirable.  Michel  Breal,  '  De 
1'enseignement  des  langues  vivantes,  Conferences  faites  aux 
etudiants  en  lettres  de  la  Sorbonne.'  Paris,  1893  (2^.).  Fr. 
Spencer,  'Aims  and  Practice  of  Teaching.7  Cambridge,  1897 
(6s.).  A  brief  and  reliable  account  of  the  present  state  of 
Modern  Language  teaching  in  Germany  was  recently  given  by 
Miss  M.  Brebner  in  her  pamphlet  called  'The  Method  of 
teaching  Modern  Languages  in  Germany.'  London,  1898 
(is.  6d.  cloth).  All  of  these  books  advocate  more  or  less  the 
so-called  '  Neuere  Richtung,'  and  are  written  for  teachers 
whose  native  tongue  is  not  German.  But  much  that  is  useful 
can  also  be  learned  from  some  German  books  for  German 
teachers,  if  one  bears  in  mind  that  the  standards  set  up  in 
them  require  modification  and  abatement,  as  German  is  a 
foreign  language  in  this  country.  Teachers  can  still  learn 
a  great  deal  from  a  careful  study  of  the  books  by  E.  Laas  and 
R.  Hildebrand  (see  my  '  Guide/  pp.  37  and  119,  120),  but 
generally  speaking  they  will  derive  most  benefit  from  the 
works  by  R.  Lehmann,  '  Der  deutsche  Unterricht.  Eine 
Methodik  fiir  hohere  Lehranstalten.'  Berlin,  2i897  (qs.  cloth); 
and  by  G.  Wendt,  '  Der  deutsche  Unterricht.'  Miinchen, 
1896  ($s.  unbound).  The  latter  contains  also  an  admirable 
bibliography. 

I  trust  that  the  recommendations  and  hints  given  above 
may  enable  teachers  to  make   a   good   choice   of  books   of 

B.  6 


82    Reference  Library  of  a  School  Teacher  of  German. 

reference  in  the  various  departments  of  their  teaching  and 
private  study.  More  than  once  I  have  been  privately  asked 
by  practical  teachers  for  information  of  this  kind ;  may  the 
suggestions  and  recommendations  now  given  be  found  useful 
to  a  wider  circle  of  readers,  and  thus  render  some  service 
to  the  cause  of  the  study  and  teaching  of  German  in  Great 
Britain ! 


INDEX. 


abbreviations,  the  chief  foreign  ab- 
breviations, 31 

aims  of  modern  language  teaching 
in  secondary  schools,  8,  10,  29, 

34-35,  42-43 

analytic  method,  2 

answers  in  complete  sentences,  24 

books  on  modern  language  teaching, 

58-61 
books  on  the  study  and  teaching  of 

German,  64-82 

Cambridge   Medieval   and  Modern 

Languages  Tripos,  28-29 
classics,  1 8,  32,  36;  German  classics, 

75-76 

'canon'  to  be  elaborated,  32 
annotated   editions,    18,    32,    37, 

75 

French  and  German  iyth  and 
1 8th  century  classics,  34 

English  renderings  of  foreign  clas- 
sics, u,  37 

foreign  texts  always  to  be  read 
out  in  class,  37 

archaisms  in  classics,  51-52 

rimes  in  classics,  16 

biographical  accounts  of  classics, 
41 


composition,  ordinary,  n,  35;  free, 

11-12,  71-72 
conversation,  24-26,  71 
correspondence,  international,  12 

dictation,  15 

dictionaries  :    German  dictionaries, 


64-6* 
arl-E 


ction 


- 

Germarl-Enflish,  64-65 
German-Germfen,  65-66 
foreign  words  in  Gyman,  66 
German    equivalent    of    foreign 

words,  66 
orthographical,  66 
etymological,  67 
synonymical,  67 

systematical  (English-German),  67 
travelling  (English-  German),  67 
commercial,  67 
miscellaneous,  67 
differences    between    German    and 

English,  43 
difficulties,  chief  difficulties  of  Ger- 

man grammar,  53 
direct  method,  2,  25-26 

English,    too    much    neglected    in 

many  schools,  39 
essays,    books    on    German    essay 

writing,    71-72 


84 


Index. 


etymological  comparisons,   21,  23 
examinations 

neglect  of  the  spoken  language, 

4»  33 

prescribed  books,  33-34 
foreign  examinations  for  modern 

language  teachers,  25 

form-association,  20,  52 

form,  metrical  form  of  foreign  poetry, 

38-39 
foreign  words  in  German,  books 

on,  66 
French,  first  teaching  of,  24 

German : 

aim  of  teaching  German,  43 
books  on  the  teaching  of  German, 

61,  64-82 

classics,  books  on,   75-76 
conversation,  24-26,   71 
dictionaries,  64-67 
difficulties  of  German,  53,  69 
essays,  71-72 
genders,  54-55 
geography,   79-80 
grammar  teaching,  50-55 ;  gram- 
mars, 67-69 
handwriting,  70 ;  in  examinations, 

45 

history,   78-79 
history  of  the  German  language, 

books  on,  69-70 
history     of    German     literature, 

books  on,  72-74 
idioms,  71 
letters,  44-46,   70 
Middle  High  German,  77-78 
mythology,  78 
names,  56 
Old  German,  76-78 
pronunciation,  46-49,   / 


German  : 

punctuation,   70 
'Realien,'  78-80 
sagas,   78 

sixteenth  century  German,   77 
spelling,  46,  70 
syntax,  books  on,  69 
word-formation,   55 
glottal  stop,    14-15,  48 
gradation  of  reading,   29 

,,  -      of  poems  to  be  learnt,  33 
grammar,    teaching    of    grammar, 

17-21 

German  grammar,  50-56 ;  defects 
of  many  school  grammars  of 
German,  51 

historical  grammar,   20,  52 
holiday  courses  abroad,  27-28 

idioms,  9,   21-22;    German  idioms 

explained,   71 
illustrated    Primer,    29;    illustrated 

Reader,  30 
international  correspondence,   12 

Latin    words    in    German,    French 

and  English,  20 
learning  by  heart,  poetry  and  prose, 

33 
leave  of  absence  for  modern  language 

teachers,  27 

letters  in  German  Reader,   31 
literature,  books  on  German  litera- 
ture,  72-74 

should  foreign  literature  as  such 
be  taught  in  schools?,  41 

maps  of  the  foreign  country,  29,  31 
method,  new,  direct,  analytic,  2 
method  of  reading  with  a  class, 
35 


Index. 


method, 

methods    (various)     of    teaching 

modern  languages,  5 
books   on    methods    of   teaching 

modern    languages,    58-61,    of 

teaching  German,  80-82 
methodical  preparation  for  a  reading 

lesson,  35-37 
metre,  38-39,  52 ;  books  on  German 

metre,  74-75 
Modern  Language  Association,  27, 

32 
Modern  (Language)  Quarterly,  5, 13, 

16,  28,  32,  57,  64 
Modern  Languages  at  Cambridge, 

25,  28-29 
Modern  Languages: 

educational  value,  3,  34 

not     to     be     taught    like    dead 

tongues,  8 
to  be  connected  with  English,  8 ; 

with  history  and  geography,  8 
increased  interest  in,  34 
opportunities  for  teachers,  3,  42 
not  to  be  degraded,  42 
mots  populaires  and  mots  savants, 
20,  52 

names,  German  geographical,  29 
proper  names  and  family  names 

in  German,  56 
Neuere  Richtung,  2,  81 
new  method,  2 

object  lessons,  29 

oral  test  necessary  in  examinations, 

4,  33 
orthography,  German,  46,  66,  70 

periodicals,  57-58 
phonetics,  13-14,   62,   71 
phonetic  transcription,   15-16 


phrases,  idiomatic,  9 
pictures  in  'Reader,'  31 
picture-books,  discussions  of  pictures 

in  lower  forms,  22,  24,  26 
plays:    discussion   of   great    plays, 

38-41;  historical  plays,  40-41  ; 

acted   abroad,    40 ;    books    on 

classical  German  plays,  75 
poems  to  be  learned  by  heart,  33,  37 

reading  in  school,  37 
prepositions,  right  use  of  German 

prepositions,     and    case    after 

them,  53 
prescribed  books  for  examinations, 

33-34 
punctuation,  book  on  German,  70 

Reader,  centre  of  modern  language 

teaching,  29 
constitution  of  model  Reader,  30- 

3i 

reading,  29;  what  should  be  rejected, 

30»  32 
reciting,  15 

residence  abroad,  26-29,  40 
results  of  teaching  modern  languages, 

42 
rimes  of  the  classics,   16 

self-abnegation  of  modern  language 

teacher,  36 
series-method,  23 
sound-tables,  13,  71 
spelling,  17;   German  spelling,  46 
spoken  language  neglected   in   our 

examinations,  4,  33 
Sprachgefiihl,  20,  54 
structure  of  dramas,  explanation,  39 

tables  of  foreign  measures,  weights 
and  moneys,  31  ;  of  foreign 
sounds,  31 


86 


Index. 


teacher  :  only  duly  qualified  teachers 
to  be  appointed,  4, 18;  teachers, 
qualifications,  25-26,  39-40 
training     of     modern     language 

teachers,  4,  7 

modern  language  teachers  to  be 
mainly  English,  28  ;  reference 
library  of  a  teacher  of  German, 
63-82 

theatre,  visits  to  foreign  theatres, 
40 

theory  of  poetry,  books  on,  75 

time,  all  important  question  for 
success  in  modern  language 
teaching,  3-4 


translation,   n,   37 

travelling  scholarships  for  modern 
language  students  and  teachers 
urgently  wanted,  27 ;  at  Bir- 
mingham, 27 

utilitarian  views  on  modern  lan- 
guage study,  34 

verbs,  strong  and  separable  verbs  in 

German,  53-54 
vocabulary,  9,   22-24 

wall-pictures,  22,   24-25 
word-formation,   23,   55-56 


CAMBRIDGE  I     PRINTED    BY   J.    AND   C.    F.    CLAY,    AT    THE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS. 


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